Rather than try to hold back the spruce beetle wave, Denali scientists and managers intend to watch closely as it spreads over the next several years. Via AlaskaBeacon
A spruce, with rust-red coloring that is the usual result of beetle infestation, is seen on July 7, 2023, on the Mount Healy Overlook Trail in the front country of Denali National Park and Preserve. The beetle infestation that hit the Manatuska-Susitna Borough hard starting in about 2016 has spread north and reached the national park.
But while the beetles are considered to play a role in the boreal forest lifecycle, outbreaks in the modern era have been different than those in the past. “We want to see not just the pattern of mortality but also how does the forest respond after the wave has broken? In the long term, decades out, what comes back? Is the nature of the forest that comes back the same or different?” Roland said.
“Whether it’s objectively a problem depends on whether you’re a spruce beetle or not, I suppose,” Roland said. Park officials are taking lessons from the high-profile fires that burned in beetle-infested areas in past years on the Kenai Peninsula and in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, she said.Exactly why this latest infestation is spreading, not only north to Denali but also south in another wave on the peninsula, is a subject of continued study.
“I basically didn’t expect them to really come over Broad Pass so much. I thought it would slow down,” he said. “I thought it would be too cool up there in the summer, so I was wrong about that.”
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