This photo is of the Colorado River headwaters as it pours out of the Rocky Mountains, just south and west of the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was taken in the summer of 2005. It's a beautiful scene, but if you look closely, you notice the dead trees. The trees are Lodge Pole pine trees that have been infected with the Pine Bark Beetle. These little pests are destroying all the trees in the Rocky Mountains. And they are moving to destroy what's left. Very large swaths of the trees across the mountains are dead and brown. (13 comments)