As usual, ER, good points.

And fire does serve a purpose: it kills off those nasty beetles. Also, at least with the lodgepole pine, it takes heat (more than just a hot July day) to release the seeds from the cones. But we can't let thousands of acres burn at once. Hopefully the logging will proceed by creating fire breaks first, to be able to control the fires in our future. Then controlled burns of the divided forest areas, or logging, then replant with aspen culled from the mature stands. But we better move fast.

Much of what is happening now may in fact be the canary dropping dead off its perch. However, the drought we experienced a fews years back stressed all of the forest. This allowed the beetles to attack a greater number of trees. The beetle is part of the system, one that has gotten out of control. It turns out that drought is the normal states of affairs here. I'll have to dig up the link, but one of the problems with the compact that governs the use of the water from the Colorado River is that the initial calculations were made during one of the wetter periods in this area, and it does not really reflect the average amount of water in the basin.

(this post has been edited for spelling.)