Dunno about other areas. However for the forest behind Cumbres, the majority tree is Engleman spruce. They used to be coated with lichens. Lichens are dead too.
Right now, today, there are miles of roads with orange tags. Meaning it's been sold to loggers and no firewood cutting. Right now the loggers have full access to the majority of this area. They can go in a clean all these dead trees out.
Engleman spruce is one of the few species that can grow at this altitude. The drawback is it's premium for paper pulp. Secondary for lumber. Don't see any pulp mills in this area.
The biggest threat to this area is fire. This mess needs to be cleaned out asap.Loggers have full access and have bought it. Trees died due to spruce beetles which have been made worse by years of drought, too warm and not enough woodpeckers which eat the beetles.
rehunn Wrote:
=======================================================
> Yup, and this was all way less of a problem when
> the professional loggers
> were allowed to work. And before (though not
> likely here) the screams of
> "clear cut!!" are heard, 1) if it remained clear
> it was because the Forest
> Service wouldn't allow replanting and 2) it's
> healthy to completely clear
> an area from time to time. Look at the crap forest
> in areas where this
> level of management has not been allowed.