Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM
a WARNING for east mountain residents!!!
For the close to 100,000 people who live in comunties located in the East Mountain area, there is a problem. The Barkbeetle invasion is among you. Here are some natural tips to help prevent the growth of these bugs:
1. Store firewood in garage or shed because the beetles lay their larvae in the wood.
2. Clean up dead wood around your property.
3. If capable, cut down dead pine trees in and around property.
4. Clear old pine needles about an inch down or until you reach moisture breakage.
This is your way of keeping the area you live clean. So we can all have the East Mountains to visit.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Brittain on -
Awesome advice Angelo.
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Permalink Reply by Phil_0 on -
Good advice, but about a year or two late...I've spent about a month outside in the East Mountains every summer and while things were pretty bad from about 2002 to 2005, the string of rainy summers and cold winters we've had lately have pretty much dropped bark beetle populations back to normal. Most of the pinons we're seeing look happy and healthy, and there are plenty of youngsters starting to make up for the ones that were lost.
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Permalink Reply by Lee on -
good advice for fire prevention though.
As I understand it, part of the problem is just overcrowding on the trees, which stresses the trees as they compete for sun/water. Add a drought and tree's become more stressed and the beetle starts to turn the tide.
Interesting thing I have noticed, as I move across our land removing the dead trees is the beetle damage has reduced the density of tree's to about half, not only reducing the fire hazard (provided the dead trees are removed) but making a healthier forest and approximating what they say the "natural" pre 19th century state of the forest was.
Thing is now I have this nearly unending supply of marginal firewood.....
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Permalink Reply by Phil_0 on
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You're right about fire prevention...and I'm glad to hear you're getting the dead stuff out.
It's surprisingly hard to gauge what "natural" conditions in a southwestern forest should be, or even what "natural" means at any given point in time: humans have been exerting a heavy influence on forests for at least the last 1000 years, if not earlier. In the last 300-400 years, livestock grazing has have very different effects in different areas, encouraging woody growth in some areas and discouraging it elsewhere. Photos from many parts of the Sandias from the early 20th century, when herds of sheep and cattle were actively grazing, show only a fraction of the pinons and juniper density that currently exists. Of course, woodcutting for firewood and construction material also led to deforestation and forest thinning.
The same was true prehistorically in areas in the vicinity of large pueblo villages, where woodcutting often led to heavy deforestation during the periods when villages were occupied. At greater distances from their villages, Pueblos, Apaches and other native groups frequently used fire to thin out forests and create better conditions for agricultural fields or grasses and other useful wild plants.
In general, though, you're right: since the debut of modern "forest management" practices, fire suppression and the cessation of wood-gathering and grazing in many areas has led to extremely dense, woody stands of small trees that allow both disease and fire to spread and propagate more quickly. The thinning-out caused by the beetle blight is therefore, as you say, a very good thing...as long as someone or something cleans up the snags before they burn!
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