SMALLER THAN PENNY; BIG HASSLE IN NUMBERS

These tiny critters can send campers packing

Bark beetles ravaging Western forests, forcing campgrounds to close

MATT JOYCE

Associated Press

Falling Trees
AP Photo

Dead bark beetles are displayed next to a penny in the Wyatt Williams's lab at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, in this Aug. 24,2006, file photo. As bark beetles ravage millions of trees across the West, U.S. Forest Service officials in Colorado and Wyoming have closed some popular campgrounds out of concern the infested trees will come crashing down on visitors.

    ON THE WEB Closures in Rocky Mountain Region: www.fs.fed.us/r2/recreation/camping

    CHEYENNE, Wyo. --

    Vacationers will have fewer places to pitch their tents this summer in Colorado and Wyoming, and they can place the blame on bugs.

    The U.S. Forest Service has closed some popular campgrounds in the two states because of concern that trees killed by the bark beetles that are ravaging forests across the West could topple onto unsuspecting visitors.

    Bark beetles have always been a part of forests in the West, but warming temperatures and an abundance of aging lodgepole pines that haven't been thinned by fires have allowed populations of the hungry insects to explode. They now infest nearly 3,600 square miles of forest in the two states.

    Swaths of 60-foot trees killed by the quarter-inch bugs may be easily toppled by wind or other disturbances.

    "If they were to fall on a tent camp, they would probably kill or injure the people inside," said Francisco Valenzuela with the Forest Service in Washington, D.C.

    The Forest Service recently announced the closure of 21 campgrounds and recreation sites in Colorado and Wyoming for the summer. Seventeen other sites will open late, after dangerous trees are removed.

    Some bark beetle infestation also has been noticed at lower elevations of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, but park officials say campgrounds there are not yet affected.

    ON THE WEB
    Closures in Rocky Mountain Region: www.fs.fed.us/r2/recreation/camping


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