While we've seen wildfires burn our nation's forests this summer, a Utah forest is quietly dying.
Thousands and thousands of trees are already dead and what's killing them continues to spread.
And so does a controversy on just what should be done.
Central Utah Correspondent Sam Penrod reports from the Manti, LaSal, National Forest.
From a distance, the forest looks like any other.
Green mountain grass and trees as far as you can see.
But a closer look shows something is seriously wrong.
The trees are dead, the forest appears to be dying.
Sam Penrod/Eyewitness News: "MOST OF THESE TREES ARE ANYWHERE FROM 150 TO 200 YEARS OLD, AND THEY WEREN'T DESTROYED BY FIRE, IT WASN'T DISEASE, BUT A TINY INSECT."
It's commonly called a spruce beetle.
These bugs bore into a tree and can kill it by cutting off nutrients.
The beetles are considered to be nature's way of thinning out a thick forest.
While a few trees die, the beetle allows healthy trees to flourish.
But over the last few years in this area, the spruce beetle has killed 90 percent of the trees.
Elaine Zieroth/Manti-LaSal Nat'l Forest Supervisor: "SOMETIMES WE CREATE CONDITIONS THAT CREATE EPIDEMIC POPULATIONS OF THE BUGS AND THAT'S WHAT WE ARE FACING NOW, PROBABLY A LITTLE MORE THAN NATURAL AMOUNT OF BEETLE ACTIVITY PARTLY BECAUSE WE'VE KEPT FIRES OUT FOR SO LONG."
The question for the Forest Service is what to do now?
This summer it planted more than 200,000 spruce seedlings.
It also wants to remove the dead trees on about ten percent of the infected area, through commercial logging.
A plan designed to open the area for wildlife and new trees, but now on hold because of this lawsuit.
Denise Boggs/Utah Environmental Congress: "THERE DEFINITELY ARE DEAD TREES IN THE SOUTH MANTI TIMBER SALE. BUT JUST BECAUSE A TREE IS DEAD DOESN'T MEAN IT DOESN'T SERVE AN ECOLOGICAL PURPOSE."
The beetle has now spread over dozens of square miles in this forest.
While the Forest Service admits little can be done to stop it from spreading, it believes limited ongoing logging may be the best defense.
Elaine Zieroth/Manti-LaSal Nat'l Forest Supervisor: "WE'RE HOPING TO GET AHEAD OF THE BEETLES IN ANOTHER AREA AND DO SOME THINNING, AND THAT'S OUR ONLY HOPE IN SAVING SOME OF THE SPRUCE THAT AREN'T INFECTED YET."
Denise Boggs/Utah Environmental Congress: "THESE BEETLES HAPPEN TO BE THE MAIN PREY SOURCE FOR MANY OF THE SENSITIVE PREY WILDLIFE SPECIES IN THE AREA, LIKE THE THREE TOED WOODPECKER. THEIR PRIMARY FOOD SOURCE ARE THESE BARK BEETLES."
Denise Boggs/Utah Environmental Congress: "THEY ARE A NATURAL PART OF THE ECO SYSTEM AND THEY BELONG THERE. THEY DON'T NEED TO BE CONTROLLED, THEY NEED TO BE LEFT ALONE."
Local residents say while the beauty of this forest may be lost for generations, their real fear is that a wildfire could sweep through the dead trees and destroy the watershed, causing a real environmental disaster.
And as the debate and legal wrangling drags on, these majestic trees continue to lose their battle with the small bark beetle.
A hearing on the logging lawsuit is set for January in federal court.
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Nov. 23, 2001
