Beetles strike trees in wilderness

The mountain pine beetle has struck Sisters Ranger District in epidemic proportions.

These destructive little tree-killers have been around for years, slowly growing in numbers throughout the Northwest, and now they have reached the Three Sisters Wilderness in uncontrollable numbers.

"And they're headed for Mt. Washington Wilderness," said Brian Tandy, Forester for the Sisters Ranger District. "Wherever you find lodgepole pine, you'll find the mountain pine beetles. And, unfortunately, they're getting into the ponderosa pine as well. However, the beetles killing lodgepole in the wilderness areas will become a living laboratory."

This isn't a story that begins in the Sisters Ranger District, or the Deschutes National Forest for that matter. It is one that began when fire was excluded from the forest as a management tool in the early 20th Century, timber harvest took out the biggest and the best, and trees of one species were replanted.

The forests of the Rockies have been hit just as hard as the Deschutes by the tiny beetles, killing uncountable millions of lodgepole and ponderosa pine. The phenomenon is almost like a fire, but in this case, an insectivorous fire.

Trees destroyed by mountain pine beetles along Pole Creek have been harvested for years by firewood woodcutters. Nevertheless, if mountain pine beetles kill lodgepole outside the Three Sisters Wilderness in the roadless area, they will be left standing.

There is little foresters can do to halt the spread of the beetle, although some success was found keeping the beetle out of the forests around Sunriver. (See column, page 27.)