Vertical Gasoline aided by bugs and hotter weather (visit NRDC.org)

All over the American Southwest the pine trees are under attack by a pine tree bore.  This bug drills so many holes in the trunk of the pine it spills it's sap out and dies. If you go to the base of a tree in it's final days, you see sawdust on the ground and the tree weeping sap.  From the high desert mountains in southern New Mexico to north of Yellowstone you can see whole mountain sides of dead pine forests, standing death, vertical gasoline waiting for the spark.  This year and the next few could see the largest fastest fires we have ever known.  The beetle causing this can be killed by spray, but it is impossible to spray billions of pines in the West and the capacity to do so does not exist.  Once these forests are gone erosion will set in, heat in the mountain states will rise further.  New pines will grow but the beetle attacks them as soon as they are as thick as a mans wrist.  I have not heard a good projection of what these mountains will look like in a few years.  Aspen cannot take the place of all the pine, they usually grow on different facing slopes, each have their niche for sun and moisture.    

These beetles or bores, are at the Canadian border now, science says they will move north in the next few years.  Low temperatures exclude them now, but with the coming warmer temperatures they can survive there too.  

Get to the mountains of the West as soon as you can, enjoy the healthy pines where you find them, notice the dead groves, and stay alert, camp in safe places, away from the dead trees and near water and with an exit strategy.  Get to the parks, let your legislators and your state park people know you want the facilities maintained, and the animals protected.   Go to NRDC.org.  If you do not know this group, they are rated one of the top charity in the US.  Almost all their money goes to the purpose it was collected for, this my friends is something few charities can confirm.  They spend very little money raising money or paying directors, and they have the best track record among environmental groups, what they fight for they often achieve.