Sierra Nevada pine tree die-off worsens as beetles thrive in drought

PINEHURST, Calif. A massive die-off of pine trees in the southern Sierra Nevada caused by beetles attacking drought-stressed trees is turning forests brown and creating a fire tinderbox.

From El Portal in Mariposa County to Kernville in Kern County and beyond, stands of dead trees are striking fear in the hearts of mountain residents.

"You drive around and it's all around us," said Lee Duncan, who lives in Miramonte in Fresno County near Pinehurst. "It's like a gasoline can everywhere."

About the only hope in halting the die-off is for the drought to end, an unlikely occurrence this year as winter ended with perhaps the lowest Sierra snowpack on record.

As a fourth year of drought looms, mountain residents are stuck with the cost of removing dead trees next to their homes and loggers fault the U.S. Forest Service for not allowing them to thin forests. But forest managers say the tree die-off might help Mother Nature.

El Portal resident Jerry Rupert knows all too well the dangers of forest fire. The El Portal fire that burned about 4,700 acres in and around Yosemite National Park last year started behind his home.

Now Rupert warily watches the mountainside across from his home as more pine trees turn brown in a steep river canyon leading to the nearby community of Yosemite West.

"If we get a lightning strike over there, that whole hill is going to go up," Rupert said. "All it has to do is hit one of those dead trees in there - and there are hundreds of them. It's not going to be pretty."

Rupert said he wants the U.S Forest Service to cut down the dead pines to reduce the chances of one being struck by lightning.

"The woods are sick," he said. "They need help."

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Sierra Nevada pine tree die-off worsens as beetles thrive in drought