LOOKING FOR THE GREEN

other in this strange and uncertain time. We are the church. We are the body of Christ. We are connected, our hearts and souls are intertwined through Christ’s love for us. Know you are loved. Take care of each other. Love each other.

Blessings, grace and peace, Robert

Michele Simmons, Assistant to the Rector

When my family and I moved to Colorado in 2006, we found ourselves at the epicenter of an enormous mountain pine beetle outbreak. Unlike the diversity of trees that we enjoy here on Lookout Mountain (how do you ever learn them all??), the subalpine habitat on the west slope of the Rocky Mountains is dominated by lodgepole pine. As it happens, mountain pine beetles LOVE lodgepole pine.

For some decades now, the Rockies have not experienced lengthy periods of subzero temperatures during the winter as they had historically. Without extended deep freeze events, the native pine beetles have been able to winter over without significant population losses, to the point where their numbers reached epidemic levels. Rather than impacting a stand of trees here or a swathe of forest there, they ran rampant on a regional scale, killing mature pine trees across areas measured by states, rather than miles. The landscape changed dramatically. People who came to the mountains for the beauty watched their beloved trees die. Verdant stands of forest turned orange, then brown, then grey.

When I arrived in Colorado, the locals were experiencing all the stages of grief, including sadness, anger, and fear. It is heartbreaking to know that the forest will never look like it did before – at least during our lifetime.

You see, the forest itself has lifecycle of birth-growth-old age-death-and rebirth. Lodgepole pine forests, in particular, are adapted to weather what foresters called “stand-replacing events.” Most often, this is fire. Lodgepoles have cones that are designed to open in the heat of a fire. When a fire removes a stand of trees, it also releases millions of seeds which thrive in the soil enriched with the ashes of the earlier generation and in the abundant sunlight made available by the absence of tall trees. A new generation bursts into life, with growth rates far above that of an older, shady forest. Many animals also thrive in these areas of new and rapid growth. Hunters in Colorado would tell me that these younger stands are great places to look for deer and elk, which feast on the grasses and other plants that flourish in these sunnier areas.

Beetle-killed forests aren’t identical to fire-killed forests, but some of the same principles do apply. The forest canopy is opened to ample sunshine for the first time in decades. The intense heat of the sun on the exposed slopes opens pinecones much like fire does. A new generation takes root; pine seedlings and other plants spring up in sunshine. One of my