DEVASTATION

I had heard about the devastation of the Helena National Forest but it wasn’t until we started across MacDonald Pass into Helena that the reality of the loss of the forest hit home.

The mountain pine beetle is rapidly destroying our forests. They have killed over 4 million acres of trees in Montana alone and have spread to Wyoming and Colorado. Toni, who is from British Columbia, told me that they are wrecking their havoc in Canada also.

Such a depressingly, sad sight to see so many trees brown and dead.The Forest Service is trying to cut down the infected trees but they can’t possibly keep up with the sheer number of destroyed trees.

Toni did give me one ray of hope – she told me that the beetles only attack mature trees. That means that the new trees may be able to withstand this attack and one day the forest will again be green and beautiful.