Like Canada, Colorado and Wyoming have a massive fight on their hands with mountain pine beetle outbreaks due to drought and warm winters.
Every large, mature lodgepole pine forest in Colorado and southern Wyoming will be dead within three to five years, killed in a mountain pine beetle infestation unprecedented in the state….
A lack of soil cover and the potential for forest fires as the dying trees dry out could leave reservoirs and rivers clogged with sediment more likely to pour off the landscape.
Recreation, too, is jeopardized, as campers and skiers are faced with spending their vacation time amid red-needled trees, or those with no needles at all.
It makes me wonder if we will see Solastalgia here soon.