If you haven't been to Summit County, Colorado in the last few years, you haven't seen the dying orange and dead brown lodge pole pines left by the pine beetles. According to the Denver Post, over 3 million acres of trees have been killed in Colorado and Wyoming. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14204151
Living in Summit County, I have watched the green lodge pole pines turn reddish-orange after being infested by pine beetles. After the orange stage, the tree dies, the needles fall off, and a grayish-black skeleton remains, which eventually falls under the harsh alpine climate of wind and snow taking the roots and mounds of dirt with it.
Photo courtesy of http://livestockandenvironment.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/seedling-trees-ideal-for-reforestation-after-pine-beetles-fire/
I read in our local newspaper yesterday that a camper was severely hurt when a tree killed by pine beetles fell on him. Reading further into the story, the camper, along with another camper, tied two hammocks onto this tree to support their combined weight. The dead tree fell on one of them.
I knew that the pine beetle kill would result in bad news. The most obvious would be a forest fire, which hasn't happened and hopefully will not. Another is flash flooding due to large acreages of dead trees being washed away whereas before the trees would have absorbed the water. But I don't think I could have predicted that hammock weight would have been the cause of a dead tree falling on someone.
In the Realtor community, since there is not much we can do about the dead trees, we are focusing on the positive. Some have called the removal of pine beetle kill the "View Improvement Project." Many properties once blocked by lodge pole pine trees, now have amazing open mountain views. We also talk about how the forest will grow more diverse and how the baby aspen trees can now flourish and the baby lodge pole pines can grow into their own.
We highlight how the trees can be used in residential applications for cabinets, trim and decorative wood work and how the beautiful blue streaks (caused by pine beetle excrement) give character to a living space. We tout the availability of wood for wood pellet stoves, or the easy access to wood for wood burning stoves.
But I think we would rather have our green trees back.
Recent news reports have identified a new threat to our already devastated forests - the twig beetle. The twig beetle threatens to kill the smaller and younger trees that the pine beetles missed. As Swiper on Dora the Explorer would say, "Oh Man!" 
Only time will tell how the twig beetle fares. If there is enough left for them to feed on, I fear the baby trees will be next to face the beetle plight.
I have been asked whether the pine beetle has had an effect on our real estate market. I respond as truthfully as I can by fessing up that I have no idea. If market conditions would have remained "hot," we maybe could have measured the effect of the dead trees on real estate. However, as we all know, national economic conditions caused a far greater impact on Summit County real estate than any little bug could have.
Bigger concerns in our community surround safety - prevention of forest fires and the danger of falling trees immediately come to mind. So, if you happen to visit or drive through Summit County, Colorado you can see the effects of the pine beetle for yourself. Just don't tie your hammock to a dead tree.
(Swiper photo courtesy of: http://www.funlineanimation.com/doratheexplorer/swiper.html)
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