From: Rick@dot.dot   
      
   In article ,   
    Snit  wrote:   
      
   > > Just this year, or noticeably over time? Both suck, but one is   
   > > definitely scarier.   
   >   
   > It has been over the last few years.  I have only lived in my city for a few   
   > years... but have had summer jobs here starting about 20 years ago.  The   
   > weather has changed over that time - to the point where large amounts of the   
   > forest are now dying.  *Part* of that is from over protection from fires,   
   > but most is from the bark beetle... which the trees can not protect   
   > themselves against.  The trees protection use to be to seep sap over any   
   > hole dug by the bugs... now it is so dry the trees do not produce enough   
   > sap. The beetle population grew because the trees were not killing them, and   
   > then the trees can not defend themselves.  It is an escalating problem that   
   > can only be solved by the end of the drought... and even then it would take   
   > time for the beetles to go down to their past population.   
   >   
   > Sad to see forests that have been here so long do so poorly - granted, they   
   > are not old growth... but still sad.   
      
   We've a similar problem. There's a beetle that's been rampaging our   
   forests recently, usually it's killed during the winter, but the winters   
   have been sufficiently mild lately so that it hasn't been killed off,   
   and our trees don't have any evolved defense to this invading species.   
      
   What's worse is that there are many parks around here. Logging in the   
   parks is forbidden, even if the trees are simply standing deadwood. As a   
   result, there are giant stands of bright red trees all along the   
   mountainsides...   
      
   Sad, but true.   
      
   --   
   Rick...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)