'Dead forests' can lead to widespread 'megafires'

As I stated in a 'Gems' column written three years ago on Aug. 1, 2011, millions of acres of lodgepole and ponderosa pines in the western U.S., Canada and Alaska are being killed by literally billions of tiny bark beetles, wood-eating 'monsters.'

Scientists at the National Atmospheric Research Center in Boulder, Colo., believe that the impact of dead or dying forests may actually be changing rainfall patterns, especially across the Intermountain regions from Washington State, where this month they've seen the worse wildfires in recorded history southward through Oregon and drought-parched California and eastward through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

Changes in tree and plant populations likewise are suspected in raising temperatures as cloudcover levels and rainfall amounts diminish leading to drought and these 'MEGAFIRES' of historic proportions.

Live trees, healthy ones that is, absorb carbon dioxide from atmosphere. Dead trees, by extreme contrast, give off carbon dioxide as they decompose. This, of course, has a drastic effect, at least in a given area, on the climate.

As Alex Guenther, a National Atmospheric Research Center scientist, says, "Forests help control the atmosphere. There is a big difference between the impacts of a live, healthy forest and a dead one."

The main reason for the enormous beetle infestation in the western U.S. and elsewhere is the uniformity in age of the region's forests which, in many cases, haven't been allowed to burn for much of the last century. Forest fires are nature's way of controlling bark beetles and other infestations.

The result is that, in some regions, the death rate of lodgepole pines has approached 100 percent. This "kindling effect" in the forests has led to a record number of large-sized 'megafires' in the past several years.

Some forestry scientists with the U.S. Forest Service believe that this bark beetle will reach as far east as the Great Lakes in the coming decades. The loss of habitat for the forest animal life could be "devastating."

Most forestry experts recommend cutting down any tree with even "a smattering of yellow" that will eventually turn to a "rust color" and finally a "dead brown."

As far as our trees in the yard, we have 29 of them, mostly ponderosa. I've been told that there are two specific insecticides that we can use to destroy bark beetles before they produce destruction. These treatments are quite expensive, but the alternative is even more costly if nothing is done. Dead trees also crash during high winds, sometimes onto houses and people, like we saw on Wednesday.

I would call my friend, Shawn Bennett, one of our Coeur d'Alene Press columnists and tree expert at 764-5800 for details. Don't wait too long. Time is money!

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

A very strong thunderstorm ripped through North Idaho late Wednesday afternoon downing trees and causing numerous power outages. Winds at my station on Player Drive gusted to 42 miles per hour at 4:38 p.m. Our yards were full of needles and tree branches following the 22-minute storm which dumped a record .48 inches of rain, easily breaking the previous record precipitation for July 23 of .29 inches in 1961.

At the peak of the storm, I measured an incredible .34 inches of rain in less than 10 minutes. It was as if someone were spraying my house with a fire hose turned on 'full blast.' Oddly enough, the first three weeks of July were extremely dry with only a scant .08 inches of rain the entire period. Our normal rainfall during July is just .92 inches, the driest month of the year since records began in 1895.

Temperatures reached 90 degrees on Wednesday just prior to the powerful thunderstorm that hammered areas to the north of us with hail "the size of quarters" in some cases. One wind gust in northeastern Idaho hit 67 miles per hour around 5 p.m.

After a very brief cool down, more 90-degree plus 'Sholeh Days' are predicted for the July 27 through Aug. 3 period across the Inland Northwest as a strong high pressure ridge rebuilds. As of this writing on Thursday, we had observed 11 days this July with sweltering temperatures at or above 90 degrees. We had a streak of 10 straight afternoons between July 9 and July 16 of 90s that featured a 98 degree high on Sunday, July 13. Spokane hit 99 degrees, just missing the century mark.

Our outlook for the next six weeks or so into mid-September still calls for mostly dry and warm to hot weather with an occasional thunderstorm. The annual North Idaho Fair and Rodeo in late August should be mostly fair and warm.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com