Mountain pine beetles transition to new species

[Kakato]

If this is so, and they have attacked vast tracts of land (millions of hectares), then there is something seriously wrong with our forests. I wonder if we had anything to do with that?

Of course we did by fighting fires that should have been left burning.
Working in the bush for years and being married to a sawmill owners daughter I never thought I would see the day that I agree with the peeps that said they should not fight fires in Yellowstone.

Above barrier dam a few months ago they were doing controled burns so maybe were trying to imitate the natural cycle of nature again.

Working on the mountain pine beetle program on the heli attack crew was a lot of fun because the forestry guys in Alberta kinda think their the army except they dont have guns.
They would chopper us to the top of some hill and we would make an LZ,then they would go hover over suspected beetle attack and we would compass in on the chopper,cut the trees down,buck them into 4 foot sections,scorch the bark with diesel fuel and then hand peel the bark on the stump.