The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is taking the mountain pine beetle epidemic seriously and has written a report outlining the insect’s impact to wildlife and fishing.

Although beetle infestations are a natural part of the forest cycle, outbreaks of this magnitude have not been witnessed in recorded history, the report said.

From 1996 to 2008, more than 1.3 million acres of conifers were hit by pine beetles in the Bighorn, Shoshone, Medicine Bow and Black Hills national forests. The Medicine Bow Forest has been hit the hardest, with 460,300 acres impacted by beetles, the report said.

Of the 2.4 million acres comprising the Shoshone Forest, 600,000 acres are affected by pine beetles, said Shoshone Public Affairs Officer Susan Douglas.

Treatment usually is small scale, and so far, no one has devised a cost-effective formula to terminate the large-scale invasion. Only nature seems able to effectively cope with the beetles, whether the bugs kill all their hosts or a brutally cold winter — unheard of in the last decade — freezes beetle eggs.

Potential impacts to hunting

Ramifications to hunting are the Game and Fish Department’s chief concerns, the report said.

The department can do little to battle the beetles, but it can adjust game population objectives, said Game and Fish Wildlife Supervisor Gary Brown in Cody.

Heavily-impacted areas have the potential to impair access and so radically limit hunting opportunities, which in turn would increase hunting pressure in areas free of beetles or the blighted trees.

Hunters’ success may decline if they cannot access specific areas, and hunters may simply choose not to hunt.

Hunters may opt for lower elevation hunting areas, where limited quota often is the norm, rather than national forests where general licenses are predominant.

If the number of hunters declines in specific areas, that may hurt local economies, the report said.

Changes in hunting could lead to game increases above department population objectives. Meanwhile, eradication of pine could increase grazing and aspen cover for deer and elk.

On the flip-side, if large-scale fires rage through patches of dead and dying trees, the land’s carrying capacity may lessen, thus population objectives will require revisiting.

Furthermore, heavy timber provides big game thermal cover, the report said. Ungulates can hole up in trees where winter temperatures are more moderate and thus burn fewer calories from summer fat reserves to maintain their body heat, Brown said.

Moose are dependent on heavy timber too. Moose, with their dark coats, repair to the shade of deep timber in the summer to expend less energy staying cool. Moose also rely on fir trees for winter food. “So it serves two sources,” Brown said.

Link for the entire story.