Crown King Az. (Bradshaw Mtn.) loosing all its pine trees

B

Bud Nadeau

New member
My ole hunting buddy Ron Nosker just emailed me an artical about the Bradshaws are loosing all the pine trees to bark beetles. It states that there is already a 98% mortality, which in turn is most likly to be a major forest fire hazard just waiting to happen. There will be a lot of misplaced game if this happens, being that the mtns. are an island in the desert. I sure got a lot of memories of running my trapline and calling all through the area in 70s and 80s. Great cat country, sure hope it doesn't go up in flames, could be a tough one to fight.
 
Something simalar is happening near our property in Utah. We took the trailer up for the summer a couple of weeks ago and there were Quakies laying all over the place. Damn bors of some sort gets in em and the die and fall over. Devistating!
 
Lake Arrowhead, CA and the surrounding area is being hammered by the bark beetles.

Normally the trees can fend of the beetles on their own, but because of the drought conditions, the trees are too week to protect themselves.

Usually by the time the tree shows that it has been attacked (start dying at the top) the beetles they are long gone.
 
I think it's happening all across the west. We got 'em here in NM too. I guess it's a good time to be a woodcutter, lotsa new fuel if you can get to it. I see some big fires in our future...
 
BroncoGlenn, you are on the money about the drought being the main reason, and how it has weekend the trees so that nasty little beetle can do it's thing. I live about 20 miles from Arrowhead the way the crow goes that is, Big Bear is not to far away either. I've seen the trees, they are dying all over the place, it's kinda of scary to see all those dead or dying trees. Something has to be done, I don't know if they can do anything? Or do they just have to let nature take it's corse?
 
This is happening here in SW NM also. There is only one way to control beetles and that is logging. I don't see that happening with the Greenies here fighting everything that is even proposed. By the time the law suits are over Nature will have taken its course. The bettle problems are due to drought and overpopulation of pines because of 60 years of fire suppression. On a positive note the die off of the mature pines will open up the canopy and allow new growth. Hey we might even see some Mule deer returning. It is a shame to loose much more than is nessasary however.
 
drscott, I took a nice mule deer in sw NM back in 1990, they called it a 10 pointer, I called it a 4x4 lol, it was a 26" deer. The coyote hunting is pretty good down there too, Good Hunting.
 
drscott nailed it. I go all over the west fighting huge forest fires in the summer. The primary reason you are noticing the beetle infestations are old and decadent forest. Beetles are just an indicator of a symptom. It's like finding the mecca coyote hunting spot, we keep going back, tell others about how good it is and eventually everyone will be there. We like finding the good spots and beetles like old, decadent forests. Eventually fire comes in and everything starts all over again, but now folks loose homes because they like living in the trees.
 
Your all right. The drought is the biggest leading cause, and the lack of forest management.(letting the forest service to do their jobs, letting contracters to thin and selective logging management practices). All the years that I spent in the Bradshaws, I can't recall ever seeing a log truck on the road coming down off the mtn. But then again you'd have to be half nuts to dare drive a log truck over that road. The sad ending to this is that there will be huge tracks of pine forests that will die off fallowed by large scaled forest fires. (all due to tree hugger protesters, and politics) Maybe the tree huggers and politicions need to see all the big timber country of the west go up in flames or by disease in order to start managing our forest in the proper way. ( and I'm sure the terrible fire season of last year was the result of proper management) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
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