West Yellowstone, not a pretty sight!

[Peniole]

I've always heard that yellowstone is so beautiful, so I decided to take the 330 mile trip. I was shocked at the level of devastation, not only from the huge wildfire I later heard about but a lot of the trees didn't have a scorch mark on them just vast areas of grey trees. The pictures do no justice to the extent of it. I can only assume acid rain from all the pollution that was there and the fact that the relatively protected east side of the park was not as bad, but by no means pristine either. A thoroughly depressing trip. There was some hope with new saplings here and there, but if the acid rain continues...

Excuse the blown sky in 3, wanted to show the valley details and how many trees were dead more clearly.

 

[julz]

omg, all that from acid rain? thats so crap, theres lots of forests in russia and people just get rid of them to build houses

 

[gtkelly]

Not all of it is 'directly' acid rain, although the cause of both is largely the same. Most of the trees are being killing by the mountain pine beetle. Warming global temperatures are allowing the bugs to multiply beyond the ability of the trees to protect themselves.

Similar things are happening in the Appalachians as well.

http://www.casperstartribune.net/ar.../wyoming/41c34eb3b5a7e804872573270020fb73.txt

 

[Peniole]

Whatever the cause, it was a devastating landscape. Most certainly not what I was expecting.

 

[Big Mike]

We recently drove through some areas in the Canadian Rockies that have been devastated by fire and/or Mountain Pine Beetles...it's a sad sight.

 

[vonDrehle]

I was down, or over rather, in Yellowstone recently as well and I was very surprised. Between the forest fires and whatever was killing the other trees there were alot of bare areas. I was also surprised at how slowly the trees were growing. If I remember right they said the fire was around '88 and the new trees were still very short. I've also been to Mount Mitchell several times here in NC and the acid rain has really done a number on it.

 

[JanST]

The tree's that you show in your photographs are from the fires of 1988 and not from acid rain. Forest fires (especially the ones that year) burned not only the tree's but the entire root systems and down as deep as 5" into the soil. After the fires sweep through, they leave large stands of trees just like these. And, it may take up to 30 years before a tree burned in the fires will fall.

 

[jfeenin]

Yellowstone also experiences tree die offs with shifts in the underground steam and volcanic activity. When heat moves into an area underground and a once cooler area heats the root system can literally be cooked. For example when dormant geyser reactivates.