Beetle-killed pines

Beetle-killed pines, June 11, 2009
Battle Pass, Carbon County, Wyoming
We have watched the slow march of pines turning from green to red, as pine beetles have devastated our forests. The trees are attacked by the beetles, spend a couple of years dying, then finally lose their needles, leaving a standing dead spire. We hear that it is part of natural cycle in which the trees are killed by these pests every 300 years or so. As someone said to me today, "I just wish it hadn't happened in my lifetime!"

Pine needles on snow
photos by Sharon O'Toole
