Pine beetles trigger worries about wildfires and economy

DENVER — Beneath deep snow across the high Rockies lies in wait a bug not much bigger than an eyelash that poses one of the most devastating threats to forests in decades.

And there is very little anyone can do about it.

Millions of bark beetles have created wide swaths of dead and dying trees, marring breathtaking vistas from Alaska to the Southwest. Unprecedented outbreaks are ongoing in Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota. Landowners have tried pesticides and logging trees, but the infestations haven't flagged.

The devastation has caused worries about whether tourists will stay away and whether wildfire will race through the carpets of brittle red needles, threatening communities, utility transmission lines and water supplies.

"We've been here 30 years. ... This is the worst ever," said Ken Fosha of the Drowsy Water Ranch in a scenic valley near the Continental Divide about 60 miles northwest of Denver.

To some degree, it will hurt business, Fosha said, noting that guests last summer commented about the red-and-brown trees and said they may look for other vacation spots. Other area businesses report a drop in reservations for special events such as mountain weddings.

Three miles east of Cooke City, Mont., near Yellowstone National Park, Skyline Guest Ranch co-owner Liz Jackson has watched crews logging trees in a nearby basin to try to control the outbreak. "It really looks sad," she said. "If you were based in that area, it would have huge impact."

Various species of beetles have thrived in recent decades because of warmer winters that allow more insects to live amid aging trees in crowded forests, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

It takes at least a week or two of nighttime temperatures around 40 below zero to kill the beetles, Granby Mayor Ted Wang said, adding, "We have not seen cold weather like that in 15 years."

The sticks of dead trees, downed logs and other debris have become fuel for wildfires, including the devastating ones last year in Southern California and Alaska.

In Alaska, a spruce bark beetle epidemic began in the late 1980s, peaking about 10 years later after killing white spruce trees on several million acres of federal and state land and the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage and the Copper River area east of Anchorage.