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Battle over toxic beetle killer is on in Estes Park
A mountain pine beetle.
The pine beetles are still hungry, and nothing is going to stop them from killing the vast majority of Colorado’s mature lodgepole pines in the next several years.
(Last year, the beetles chewed through nearly half a million acres of trees in Colorado, bringing the total bug damage in the state to about 2 million acres.)
But some organizations and homeowners hope that there’s some chance of at least saving a few of the pines — the ones that shade campsites, line ski runs or decorate a back yard — and that hope goes by the name of carbaryl.
The problem is that carbaryl — which to have any hope of fending of the munching beetles would have to be sprayed every year for a decade — is a “likely carcinogen,” according to the EPA, that can also cause a host of other unpleasant neurological problems. And two years ago, it showed up in Boulder’s water for the first time.
This month, a group of residents in Estes Park have begun organizing to fight carbaryl, forming the Mountain Pine Beetle Defense Council, according to the Trail Gazette.
Around Estes, the chemical is sprayed by the city, the forest service and Rocky Mountain National Park.
From our friends at the Estes Park Trail Gazette:
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Headed by Thomas Booth and Janet Miklolitch, the Mountain Pine Beetle Defense Council seeks to “provide education, support and sound solutions to the people of the state of Colorado in their defense of our trees against the ravages of the mountain pine beetle,” the proposed mission statement reads.
“I think the name and the mission statement work to get people to agree that the mountain pine beetle is BAD,” Booth said. “We want to save our trees. We want to spend our tree-saving dollars on sound solutions that have a lasting positive effect on our trees, which support all living creatures, who support our trees in return… until we fog them with a poison cloud.”
Booth points to Grand Lake as a prime example of how spraying has not worked.
All of the trees sprayed in Grand Lake died, he said.
Read the Trail Gazette’s full story on the beetle battle or read a story about carbaryl use in Boulder County in the Daily Camera.
For more information on Colorado pine beetle epidemic, check out the U.S. Forest Service beetle page, and for more information on carbaryl, visit the Environmental Protection Agency.
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[...] Battle over toxic beetle killer is on in Estes Park [...]
[...] Battle over toxic beetle killer is on in Estes Park [...]
[...] Battle over toxic beetle killer is on in Estes Park [...]
[...] So, now what? Well, it looks like the hungry pine beetles may be headed for Mt. Rushmore, where they may hope to turn forests from CO2 sinks into net greenhouse gas emitters. In the meantime in Colorado, we can expect increased falling tree hazards for at least a decade and continued fights over spraying for pine beetles. [...]