This week's assignment takes us to the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah. The mountain pine beetle arrived first, and has killed most of the lodgepole on the north slope. Our local sources tell us that the spruce beetle is just getting started in the Engelmann spruce. That leaves a lot of ugly subalpine fir, which is mostly infected with broom rust. We are doing vegetation management plans for campgrounds on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Between the forest pests and the millions of campers who simply must try out that hatchet they got for Christmas, it is tough to keep the trees alive at many of these sites.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Uinta Wasatch Cache
This week's assignment takes us to the Uinta Mountains of northern Utah. The mountain pine beetle arrived first, and has killed most of the lodgepole on the north slope. Our local sources tell us that the spruce beetle is just getting started in the Engelmann spruce. That leaves a lot of ugly subalpine fir, which is mostly infected with broom rust. We are doing vegetation management plans for campgrounds on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Between the forest pests and the millions of campers who simply must try out that hatchet they got for Christmas, it is tough to keep the trees alive at many of these sites.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Boy Scouts and hatchets, they go together like peas and carrots or Forrest and Ginny.
ReplyDeleteModern campers don't need shade from trees, their 27' RV provide all the shade and modern necessities they need: satellite TV, showers, internet.
I never noticed it until I had to inventory all the campground trees, but every one of them has been chopped, hacked, shot, poked, nailed, or driven over. Now, I'm no tree-hugger, but is it really necessary? I've been camping plenty of times and it never entered my mind that I should spend the whole weekend attempting to separate the bark from the bole.
ReplyDelete