Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 13 september 2017

Billions of dead trees force U.S. fire crews to shift tactics

By DAN ELLIOTT fire managers to take a square miles (220,000
Associated Press safer, less aggressive ap- square kilometers) in the
ALBANY, Wyo. (AP) — Vast proach to minimize the Western U.S. That’s an
stands of dead timber danger. They say it’s impos- area about the size of
in the Western U.S. have sible to know how much Utah. Beetles have killed
forced firefighters to shift bigger fires grow because nearly 80,000 square miles
tactics, trying to stay out of that. (206,000 square kilometers)
of the shadow of lifeless, The Beaver Creek Fire of forest in Western Cana-
unstable trees that could scorched nearly 60 square da.
come crashing down with miles (155 square kilome- The outbreak stems from
deadly force. ters) and burned for about a combination of factors,
About 6.3 billion dead four months. The Keystone including crowded, aging
trees are still standing in 11 Fire was discovered July forests, drought-stressed
Western states, up from 5.8 3 and contained in mid- trees and warmer temper-
billion five years ago, ac- August, after blackening 4 atures that allow the pests
cording to U.S. Forest Ser- square miles (10 square ki- to survive the winters, re-
vice statistics compiled for In this July 12, 2017, photo, a dead pine beetle is shown on the lometers). searchers say.
The Associated Press. inside of a piece of bark peeled from a beetle-killed tree near No deaths or injuries were The bugs bore under a
Since 2010, a massive infes- Albany, Wyo. reported in either fire. But tree’s bark, where they
tation of beetles has been Associated Press since 1987, at least 13 U.S. lay their eggs and release
the leading cause of tree firefighters have been killed a blue fungus. The newly
mortality in the West and “That’s the scary thing year’s Beaver Creek Fire in and five injured by falling hatched larvae eat away
now accounts for about about snags,” said Ben beetle-killed trees in north- dead trees, according to a thin later below the bark
20 percent of the stand- Brack, a firefighter and ern Colorado and southern reports gathered by the that the tree needs to
ing dead trees, the Forest public information officer Wyoming. “So that’s one of National Wildfire Coordi- transport nutrients, and the
Service said. The rest were on the Keystone Fire, which the trade-offs fire manag- nating Group, a coalition fungus cuts off the flow of
killed by drought, disease, burned across a forest full of ers have had to go to.” of federal, tribal, state and water.
fire or other causes. beetle-killed trees around Firefighters used that tactic professional firefighting or- In the past 18 months, more
Researchers have long dis- the tiny communities of on both the Beaver Creek ganizations. than a dozen Western wild-
agreed on whether beetle Albany and Keystone in and Keystone fires. They’re Massive forest die-offs have fires have burned in forests
infestations have made southern Wyoming in July also using it on two big fires occurred before, research- with some beetle-killed
wildfires worse, and this and August. “You don’t al- currently burning in beetle- ers say, and even healthy trees, blackening a total
year’s ferocious fire season ways see them coming.” killed trees in western Mon- forests have standing dead of 570 square miles (1,450
has renewed the debate, To avoid broad stands of tana. trees. John Shaw, a Forest square kilometers). At least
with multiple fires burning beetled-killed trees, fire- “I’m very much in favor of Service analyst, said the five of those fires are still
in forests with beetle-killed fighters sometimes have to it,” said Mark Gunnerson, percentage of dead trees burning.
trees. cut containment lines far- whose family owns three can vary widely over de- Some wildfires in British Co-
But no one disputes that ther from the flames. That cabins in Keystone, one cades. lumbia this summer were
dead trees — snags, in fire- allows the fires to gobble dating to 1870. “I would About 17 percent of all also in beetle-infested ar-
fighter parlance — present up more forest before rather start over than one standing trees in 11 West- eas, Canadian officials
an unpredictable threat, they’re brought under con- person get hurt.” ern states are dead, rough- said.The spike in dead trees
prone to blowing over onto trol. This summer’s fire edged to ly double the proportion in in the past five years, both
people or getting knocked “When we do that, fires get within 40 feet (12 meters) of the 1990s ? but that was a from beetles and other
down by other falling trees. bigger, and often they burn one of his family’s cabins, time of above-normal pre- causes, probably did not
Amid the noise and dis- longer,” said Bill Hahnen- but none was damaged. cipitation, Shaw said. lead to an increase in the
traction of a fire, firefighters berg, a veteran Forest Ser- Other factors, such as rug- Since 2000, two dozen number of wildfires, said
sometimes get little warn- vice incident commander ged terrain or drought- species of beetles have Matt Jolly, a Forest Service
ing. who helped corral last baked forests, can prompt killed trees on nearly 85,000 research ecologist. q