California dying: 102 MILLION trees perish in epic die-off as 7.7 million acres turn brown FOREVER

The forest is changed forever.

An ecological disaster in slow motion has taken place in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, and few people are aware of it. Nobody knows for sure what will happen as a result.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- California has suffered from drought since 2010. Only in the past two years has rain returned to the state, with many of the Sierra's pine trees dying off.

According to the Los Angeles Times, "The U.S. Forest Service estimates that since 2010, more than 102 million drought-stressed and beetle-ravaged trees have died across 7.7 million acres of California forest."

The western pine beetle is one reason. The drought has stressed the trees, making it difficult for them to fight off beetles. Normally, the tree would secrete oily-black pitch where the beetle attempts to burrow, stopping its progress. But when stressed, the trees cannot resist the beetle. The little creatures then burrow into the tree's trunk, cutting off the slow, natural circulation within the trunk. The tree dies, although it can take a couple years to turn brown.

The other problem was the aggressive approach to stopping fires which prevailed for decades. Stopping forest fires quickly has saved millions in property damage. But it has also resulted in the accumulation of dry, dead matter on the forest floor. This matter becomes kindling.

And that kindling is about to increase.

The staggering sum of 102 million dead trees is too much for anyone to comprehend, or clean up. The National Forest Service has ordered the cleanup of about 70,000 acres, but that's just 70,000 out of 7.7 million acres. In most places, the clearing of the trees simply isn't worth the cost of having someone come and pull it out.

The result will be millions of trees will eventually fall to the forest floor to become kindling. Lightning will do the trick.

Intense, fast-moving forest fires are inevitable. Homes that have been spared the worst in the past will eventually be lost as the fires become too intense to fight. Instead of allowing several, low intensity burns over the past century, we will soon contend with a few major fires that cannot be stopped. It may be that no corner of the Sierras will go untouched in the decades to come. Homeowners should take notice.

For people who live in areas where the ponderosas have died, they would do well to revisit their insurance policy and their plans for evacuation when the disaster does come. Because it will come. These people should not be lulled by the fact that most of the forest still stands. The amount of kindling on the forest floor does not become less flammable because other trees stand around it.

Across the central and southern Sierra Nevada, so many of the ponderosa pines have been lost, about 50 to 70 percent, that foresters say the makeup of the woods will be changed forever. The forest may become richer in oak, or another species native to the area. But nature has ways of coping, and it will do so in the Sierras.

However, the people who live and work in the area may suffer in the time to come. The brown trees will mar the landscape until they fall, some standing for years. The forest will be thinner in spots, but new growth will develop.

It is a shame that the forest will not be as it once was. It is a tragedy that people will be terribly affected. Unfortunately, we reap the harvest of decades of questionable policy and short-sighted thinking, along with changes in global climate.

We cannot plunder the environment with impunity, or upset nature without repercussion.

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