Prophet strolls through trees on a trail near Breckenridge.
The Eldest noticed many stacks of trees, cut and oriented like toothpicks towards the sun- the legacy of the pine beetle in Colorado.
According to the legitimate authorities on such matters, Colorado's current pine beetle epidemic is the largest ever recorded in state history. And there isn't anything you can really do to stop it.
Described by many dendrologists and foresters as a "perfect storm", multiple elements came together to give rise to this epidemic.A University of Colorado study that charts the evolution of the current pine beetle epidemic in the southern Rocky Mountains says drought conditions in the early 2000s helped pine beetle populations surge to unprecedented levels.
It stings to see so many miserable, half-living lodgepoles up and down the hills of Summit County. Dwindling reserves of the beetle's choice food, the lodgepole pine, have limited its ability to proliferate in some western states.
The Eldest tells the girls,
"This isn't how a healthy pine forest looks."
Alas, the pine beetle outbreak poses a threat to endangered trees like the whitebark pine as well. So far, the pine beetle epidemic is the only part of Colorado I'm not currently loving.
