Soil erosion has been happening for quite some time in my area and we´ve been having fatal landslides since then...sad, but it´s just Nature´s way of paying it all back!
British Columbia forests were devastated by the mountain pine beetle epidemic. The good news in British Columbia is that the infestation of beetle-kill is nearly over. The bad news is that there was nothing left to save. After more than a decade and millions of dollars spent futilely trying to stop the spread , the pests are finally running out of trees. The mountain pine beetles don't eat trees they infest, they just kill them. The government has allowed the cutting in beetle-infested forests; but that wood will run out. In B.C. tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs as mills either suspended operation or closed down permanently.
Beetle kill has been a serious topic in the Colorado rockies for several years now. The landscape will be changed dramatically by the destruction of trees due to this naturally occuring event. Beyond the aesthetic consideration some real environmental concerns exist... not the least of which is soil erosion and the chain reaction effects that has on the surrounding land and water. The ecosystem that supports marinelife in our streams is very fragile and a change caused by sediment loading can have catastrophic effect on the trout populations.
