Rocky Mountain High



Many of these Lodge Pole Pines are gone now

  

Both of the big trees down now
June 22, 2011


 

 winds hit us.  If you don't like the weather,

This tree fell on the roof but fortunately two other trees broke
the fall and didn't damage the roof

 just wait a few minutes if you live in the Rocky Mountains.  I showed the snow storm on my June 20th blog and then we enjoyed those halcyon days that remind you how beautiful the mountains are. On June 30th, around 5:p.m. a storm 'blew' in with strong winds and we thought it was the usual afternoon mountain rain that doesn't last long.  The winds were extreme and after a few minutes we were terrified as 20 to 50 foot trees started falling in every direction.  It was reminiscent of palm trees in a hurricane since both are very tall and shallow rooted. Mountain pine beetles have killed trees in our area at epidemic levels, and have affected the landscape for years to come.  Because of the change in our landscape there is no wind break and there is more moisture in the ground because of the heavy snowfall this winter.  We have sprayed every year for the pine beetle only to end up losing the trees anyway.  We have been working on the grounds for seven years now and in the mountains, it is never ending with slow results.  We do have a big clean up job but the house didn't have damage.

The grounds look like a logging operation



The Lodge Pole Pines have a shallow root system



Ten years of firewood in the yard



We will have lots of fence repair.
We hated to lose this tree with such a perfect shape