There are much more important things going on in Jackson Hole than petty squabbles for personal pride.
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| Our Peaks. Our Plague. Together we can save a significant amount of the remaining forests. |
If you've had the pleasure of enjoying a mountain vista in the Rockies this summer, you probably noticed large brown patches of dead and dying pine trees.
The forested flanks throughout the West – from Mexico through Canada – are dying as a plague of biblical proportions decimates one of our greatest natural and scenic resources:
OLD GROWTH PINE FORESTS.
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| Typical Colorado Beetle Kill |
If you really make a point to look, you’ll notice dying pine trees on just about every mountain rimming Jackson Hole.
Thus far Colorado and other areas with milder winters have had it much worse than we have here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
But please don't fool yourself.
The problem is very real here in the land that we love. The longer we wait, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to successfully fight this plague. The longer we wait, the more likely it becomes that we will suffer a total loss of our pine forests like they're seeing already in many parts of the West.
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| Photo by James Woodcock, Billings Gazette |
Though the tiny Pine Beetle is doing the killing, climate change (whatever it's cause!) is at the root of this disaster. A few degrees difference throws off the delicate balance of an ecosystem just like a slight fever leaves a person bedridden and bitchy.
Hotter summers weaken pine trees' natural defenses. Milder winters fail to kill off an adequate number of pine beetles. The beetles thrive and the forests succumb to their onslaught. It’s as simple as that.
An exceptionally cold winter could buy us some time, but with temps on the rise worldwide, we can’t afford to place our hopes in Old Man Winter. We can nip this problem before it gets out of hand, but it must be done now. Here's why:
Pine forests are a foundation of the Rocky Mountain Ecosystem.
FACT: Without living pine forests, most of the animals would die from lack of food and habitat. At least we wouldn't have a problem with wolves anymore, but we'd also lose the moose, elk, bear, and other forest dwellers that make this land wild and great. No more hunting. No more close encounters of any kind with the wildlife that defines this place.
FACT: Without the shade pine forests provide, snowpack would melt much more quickly, causing flooding in the spring and water shortages throughout the summer and fall. Over time this means increased erosion, dirty or dried up rivers, loss of species diversity, and the eventual collapse of the largest intact ecosystem in the Lower 48.
FACT: Dead pine trees are extremely flammable. Inevitable lightning strikes throughout a land of dry, dead trees would cause catastrophic forest fires: uncontrollable, fast-moving blazes that would make the Yellowstone Fires of ‘88 look both tiny and tame.
Imagine a Jackson Hole rimmed entirely by mountains flanked with the black trunks left behind. The thought is almost too much to bear. A few years from now, this becomes a very real possibility. If we do nothing, it is eventually inevitable.
Trying to fight these sorts of fires is a ridiculously expensive lost cause. We need a preemptive strike.
Pine forests are also fundamental to the Rocky Mountain Economy.
Without the aesthetic appeal of vibrant, living trees, once inspiring and priceless places become depressingly worthless.
Without the big mammals so many people come here to see, what gives them reason to continue coming?
Without the big mammals so many people come here to see, what gives them reason to continue coming?
Who wants to sip a beer on the roof deck at Dornan's if they're looking out across a sea of dead, red trees towards a desolate mountain range covered with the same? No one.
Then what?
Our tourist economy flounders and real estate prices plummet.
Our tourist economy flounders and real estate prices plummet.
The eventual burned out wasteland is even worse. No one wants to live amidst a dead, haunted forest. No one wants to vacation in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mountains of Mordor.
Like the female organ they're named after, the Tetons are most beautiful when brimming with life.
Like the female organ they're named after, the Tetons are most beautiful when brimming with life.
Skiing, biking, hiking, or horseback riding through a recent burn is, at present, an interesting and powerful novelty. Imagine if that were the norm. Imagine if you couldn't find a living pine tree to save your life.
Imagine a Jackson Hole Mountain Resort where the only green boughs adorn the cell phone tower near Apres Vous ski lift. It would be like skiing through an environmental holocaust. Few visitors would pay good money for that sort of experience.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.
Don’t get hopelessly depressed just yet, however. My goal is to leave people hopefully motivated.
Now imagine that most of the West loses their forests, but that here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem we exercise the foresight to save ours. Over the span of a few years, most Rocky Mountain resort towns will lose much of their appeal. Meanwhile, here in the Tri-State Area, our forests are relatively healthy and we’re still sitting prettier than anywhere else in North America.
Visitors would flock to the last remaining pristine place in the Rocky Mountains! Local business would boom at unprecedented levels, and only a small portion of that additional revenue would be needed to continue monitoring and combating this and future ecological (and therefore economic) threats.
By this logic, doing everything we can to save our pine forests makes perfect ECOLOGICAL and ECONOMIC sense. Irregardless of our personal politics and other differences, taking up this cause is essential for anyone who truly loves Jackson Hole.
If we fund and support the proper organizations immediately, we can at the very least save the mountains that matter most to our collective economic and quality-of-life interests. At best, we can save the entire Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from devastation.
We can also, quite naturally, create a significant number of meaningful jobs in the process.
Our most precious natural resources are saved from a very real threat.
Our local economy thrives while mountain towns that lacked similar foresight are decimated.
Ski Bums like me get meaningful jobs saving something we love.
And a True Legacy is left for Future Generations.
Everybody (including Mother Nature) Wins!
Unfortunately, the Federales within the National Forest and National Park Service are doing next to nothing to combat this widely evident ecological nightmare. While the forested flanks of the Teton Range's mightiest peaks are dying, GTNP Administrators are wasting $12.6 million on unnecessary upgrades to their administrative complex.
Many people I've met hold a hopeless attitude about the situation. I say, if we have the resources to fight this plague, let's do it. At the very least, we can save these irreplaceable and beautiful forests for a few more years.
If a PRIVATE SECTOR SOLUTION was ever OUR NEED,
NOW is DOUBTLESS the TIME.
Unfortunately, the Federales within the National Forest and National Park Service are doing next to nothing to combat this widely evident ecological nightmare. While the forested flanks of the Teton Range's mightiest peaks are dying, GTNP Administrators are wasting $12.6 million on unnecessary upgrades to their administrative complex.
Many people I've met hold a hopeless attitude about the situation. I say, if we have the resources to fight this plague, let's do it. At the very least, we can save these irreplaceable and beautiful forests for a few more years.
If a PRIVATE SECTOR SOLUTION was ever OUR NEED,
NOW is DOUBTLESS the TIME.
The underfunded folks leading the charge to save our forests work through the local non-profit named TreeFight. They’re not only using current techniques to combat the pine beetle plague but are also leading research into new methods that could be crucial to truly beating this threat. They’re also doing more to creatively raise awareness of the situation than any other organization in the West.
Back in 2000 the founder of TreeFight, David Gonzalez, literally wrote the book on Jackson Hole. You've doubtless seen it on coffee tables throughout the Valley. Now he’s fighting to save the essential essence of the place we’ve all grown to love.
I’ve personally met with David and know that to this point it has been a complete labor of love on his part. At the very least, we should all hope he sticks with it. At our collective best, we should all support TreeFight wholeheartedly. If we want a valley rimmed with healthy green forests instead of depressing blackened trunks, TreeFight offers our best hope.
I recently accompanied David and a few dozen Tree Fighters for a mission on Teton Pass. Over the course of a pleasant hike, we saved several stands of scenic old-growth White Pine…. at least for one more year. By dispersing hormone packets that deter beetles from attacking, we effectively outfitted a few acres with a beetle-repelling force field. I found out later that David bought that day's hormone packets out of his own thin pockets.
My first impression that morning was, “DAMN, there are a lot of beautiful women getting into this thing.” After that initial shock wore off, I learned a great deal about the trees that David and crew are fighting to save. If you like living trees and beautiful women, contact TreeFight and take part in one of their upcoming missions. You’ll learn a lot about the threat and the solutions that TreeFight can offer.
The grass roots support is already there. Folks are lining up to fight this thing. The only factor really limiting TreeFight’s impact is a lack of funding.
Protecting healthy trees and eliminating dead trees hosting beetle nests on a scale as Grand as our landscape will be a costly endeavor. Every little bit helps, but if the true financial powerhouses of our community took up the torch here, we’d all benefit greatly.
We, the People of Jackson Hole, as the stewards of this remarkable land have a responsibility to save it for future generations. By saving the trees here, we are also saving ourselves.
We all need to look at the growing devastation around us. Those patches of red dead trees are only going to grow until they blanket every hill and mountain in our little paradise.