Broken
It’s not really a topic I think about to photograph, but I looked through my files and found this shot. It’s one I took last fall at Vedauwoo Campground in southern Wyoming. We have had an epidemic of pine beetles in the West – one of the reasons that the High Park Fire near my town of Fort Collins, Colorado was so severe in 2012. The skeletons of these Ponderosa Pines are all that’s left after the beetles had their way with them. They’re beautiful in their death – a broken link in our ecology? I really don’t know – maybe it’s just a natural part of the cycle of life.
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LargeSelf 
A broken link in ecology, great take on! Love this photo. We sawn a lot of dead trees while driving to the Grand Canyon.
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Thanks, Amy. Yes, the beetles have been voracious – still, I find it encouraging that many trees still survive!
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So sad to see them die like that, but you’re right, they do have a certain beauty and you’ve captured it well.
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Thanks, Carrie. The epidemic seems to have slowed in the past year or so and there are many that survived the beetle attacks, so that’s encouraging.
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Vedauwoo was our favorite place in college. I went to the U. of Wyoming, then came back years later to teach in Cheyenne. It was much changed, but still a beautiful place.
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Yes, it is still very beautiful. Last year in mid-June, the wildflowers were amazing. Thanks so much for the comment!
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I really like this. I’m a sucker for trees, and these are just beautiful.
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Thank you, Brenda!
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I’m always drawn to images of trees. This one is particularly beautiful in its soft, fuzzy edges… like waking from a dream. The devastation from various beetles and caterpillars is so upsetting… they just eat, eat, eat, and we are left with these stripped trees. Amazing how YOU make even that look beautiful, Cathy!
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Thanks so much, Dawn. I love trees, too! Yes, the devastation is sad, but after the initial shock, one seems to get used to it. Even so, our mountains are still very beautiful and I feel so blessed to live here in Colorado. I suppose it’s nature’s way of culling – as many of the younger trees do seem to have some immunity to the beetles…
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I love the way they look against the blue sky. A sad cycle but a beautiful capture.
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Thanks, Audra. Yes, it’s a sad cycle – but I agree – it exactly that. A cycle. I have to remember that sometimes, but I have noticed that many of the younger trees do seem to have some kind of immunity to the beetles and that’s encouraging.
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Wow. Beetles killed all those trees!? I remember gypsy moth caterpillars eating all the leaves off a few of our maple trees one year. They were decimated. What the trees did next totally surprised me: they put out another set of leaves.
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Yes, it’s really cool how the trees can recover. In the case of the pine beetles, they go after the bark which carries the nutrients and water to the tree – so they actually kill the trees. But many of the younger trees do seem to survive, so there is hope, I think for the forests here. Thanks so much for your comment, Susan.
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Broken is more than a sever, so good selection … and I like the image!
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Thanks, Frank. I heard various theories about why the pine beetles have been so devastating to our forests here. One proposes that the very active fire prevention in the twentieth century lead to overpopulation which caused the trees to be less hearty and less immune to the beetle attacks. And in my own amateur view, it does look like many of the younger trees have survived.
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Very interesting … whatever the reason, nature seems to have a way of doing its thing. Thanks for sharing!!!
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The last time I drove up the turnpike, I was dismayed by the number of dead pines I saw along the road. I wonder if the same beetles have taken up residence here? I sure hope not. Great illustration for Broken. I don’t know if it’s broken ecology, but these poor trees are broken for sure.
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Thank you, Leon. I truly don’t know if the pine beetles have made it to Maine. I hope not as well. They are a part of the ecology, I think. Maybe it’s part of a bigger scheme and these individuals (trees) have reached their time to depart. Still, I am touched by their beauty and their existence here on our beloved planet.
I have read theories about the beetles’ prevalence in the West. It’s my understanding that the current theory is that the active effort in the twentieth century to reduce wildfires caused an overpopulation of the trees, making them weaker to predators like the pine beetle. Human interference? Bad rap? I don’t know. But I am encouraged by the fact that there are still trees (young ones) that survive, even in places where many of the older, larger trees have succumbed.
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