ALLEGANY CO., N.Y. — A scientist is curious, observant, and keeps records. He uses his mind attempting to understand what he observes. It’s all very cerebral – intellectual. But, we also have a heart and emotions. Let me tell you a story.
Nearly 30 years ago, I began to drive to San Diego to visit family. After arriving in Kansas, I left the interstate and took back roads. I still remember the excitement I felt upon reaching the Rocky Mountains. Leaving the high plains at 5,000 feet, they soared to over 13,000 feet, covered in an endless evergreen forest stretching 1,500 miles North into Canada.
The road crossed Wolf Pass, close to 10,000 feet and the spruce, pine, and fir were magnificent. I arrived at dawn, the road was empty and I huffed and puffed my way up to view the waterfall, my lone companion a hummingbird checking out the orange “flowers” on my shirt. Eighteen years passed before I came that way again, this time from West to East. As I crossed the pass I began to notice more and more dead trees scattered in the forest. When I asked the maintenance man at the Rest Stop about it, he said, “It’s those bark beetles. The summers are longer and warmer and now some have two hatches instead of one. The trees are all stressed due to the drought and they succumbed. We can’t spray the whole damn front for 1,500 miles. You just watch them die.”
There is more than one bark beetle causing concerns: Mountain Pine and Spruce bark beetles. Each has a preference for which trees it attacks. Globally we are seeing large infestations of insects and diseases hitting the trees hard. The scope of the problem is just not getting out there to the public. While the US Forest Service says propagation has not increased to two hatches a year, only precocious individuals have two hatches, it seems that events in 2002 (drought and blow-downs), caused an increase in Spruce bark beetle populations that are still alarmingly large. In the past 100 years there have been population explosions of Spruce bark beetles, but they have had much less impact acreage-wise. The picture is of Spruce bark beetle damage. The spruce beetle is killing most trees 5” or larger in diameter. The seedlings and saplings underneath the dead layer is still alive and trying to regrow. Eventually forest fires may come and if this happens then there is no going back. The forest composition will change. The West Fork complex fire in 2002 is an example of forest fires taking out 110,000 acres and killing all the new growth – the drought exacerbated this problem. When soil is not moist and has no moist cover layer of leaves, pine needles, branches, etc., there is no protection at all for seeds waiting to germinate so a fire will kill the next generation of seeds in these conditions too. Ask the people out in Santa Barbara about fires and mud slides.
Four or so years after my Rest Stop visit, I saw an article in National Geographic (I think it as National Geographic…) about problems in our Western forests due to Global Warming and the bark beetle. There was a double page photo of Wolf Pass in winter – snow everywhere and not a live tree standing. They were all dead! Scientists are still trying to definitively link global warming to what is happening to our forests and many researchers are studying these forests today.
As a scientist myself, I know in my head things come and go on this planet. The great fern forests of the swamps, the dinosaurs which once ruled, and the 2 mile deep glacier which once covered NYS are no more. To study natural history is one thing; to loose an environment you love is a matter of the heart. It’s not just the Spruce pine, and fir which are vanishing. Everything which depended upon the forest goes with it. If the problem was local (your backyard), you, with great effort and money could probably repair the damage and see recovery. Not for tens of thousands of square miles. I feel like the Civil War soldier who went west to see the prairies before they were all gone in that movie, Dances with Wolves. If you love this land go see it before it is gone. With our present day outlook, I doubt we can halt its going. Our forests are under attack, however, we also get to see what will sprout from these new lands, we have front row seats to observing the changes that are taking place and can help shape our newest future. All while our heart still breaks.
–ML Wells, Master Gardener Volunteer
CCE Allegany County
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