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Beetle Kill Essy

The Red Storm Our forests are changing before our eyes. Year after year our wonderful green forests are turning red. We see it spreading across more and more area as time goes by. There are beetles responsible for the change in color. These beetles are spreading and infecting more trees in many different areas. These beetles have been around for a long time. We are noticing them more now because of the drought. The beetles infect tree that are weak because they are not getting enough water. Some areas are bare on the mountains because of all the dead trees that have been infected. Even though beetle kill can be prevented, the infection of trees is spreading across the nation and is becoming a major hazard. Here in Montana we call the trees the red storm. There are many different species of bark beetles. Each species attacks a different kind of tree (Dreistadt, 2004). This could be one of the reasons that beetle kill are spreading so rapidly. The number of trees that have become infected in Montana has increased dramatically. Appendix A shows the amount of acreage infested in my local area of Helena Montana. These numbers have increased dramatically within four years (Kamps, 2008). There have been infected trees in Colorado, Arizona, Canada, Idaho, Texas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Washington. The area infected in these areas is numbered over 700,00 acres (Wysong, 2007). Some say global warming could be the cause of the spread of beetle kill. The infected trees are a major fire hazzard. These trees give the fires extra fuel because they are dead. The needles on the infected trees are red. Once the tree dies the needles fall to the ground. The tree then turns gray in color (Puckett, 2008). They really look dead. These trees are not very sturdy once they die. With strong enough winds these trees may fall down which gives more fuel to a fire. On my families property a couple of trees have fallen on power lines. Wild fires have increased over the years. More land...