Pike & San Isabel National Forests
Cimarron & Comanche National Grasslands

USDA Forest Service
Pike & San Isabel
National Forests
Cimarron & Comanche
National Grasslands
2840 Kachina Drive
Pueblo, CO 81008
719-553-1400

Telephone for the
Hearing Impaired
719-553-1404

Insects and Disease

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05528.html
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/pinus
/ponderosa.htm
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/pubins.html#tree

Discussion 3:  Let’s Talk About Insects and Disease and Forest Health

If you see a dead Ponderosa pine, bare of its needles, in the center of a group of orange-needled pines, it’s very likely that you are looking at bug-kill.  The next year, you will notice the circle of orange has widened, and more trees in the center are now dead. Have you seen these very characteristic signs of mountain pine beetle in your area?

A Forest Health “Yes I Understand” Activity:

Draw a picture, describe in writing, or shoot with a camcorder your interpretation of a forest in which a fire is likely to burn rapidly and at very high temperatures, reaching the tops of trees and killing them.  Then do the same for a forest in which fire has been allowed to burn, either by prescription or naturally, or in which clearing has occurred causing the removal of the buildup of dead branches (known as ladder fuels) and weak or damaged trees.