Last year in Wyoming and Colorado it was 1.5 million acres. This year it is expected to total over two million. In the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, the problem is most severe. It is the largest known insect infestation in the history of North America, officials said. British Columbia has lost 33 million acres of lodgepole pine forest, and a freak wind event last year blew mountain pine beetles, a species of bark beetle, over the Continental Divide to Alberta. Experts fear that the beetles could travel all the way to the Great Lakes.
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- TravG73
- added this
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Oh this is so sad! It's happening all around Colorado where I'm from. Every time I go home I can't believe how much more of the green pine forest has turned red with dead trees. Aesthetically it's quite stunning to look at, but knowing what's causing it and thinking about what's at stake should a fire break out just breaks my heart.
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I saw this in Colorado summer 2008. I have been through this area too many times to count and never seen anything like it. I thought it was somehow drought related. I asked my resident friends and they told me of this pest. These things are voracious. Some hard decisions are going to have to be made. How can these things be wiped out with minimal harm to the environment?
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- samthesixth
- 1 year ago
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