Took my brother home part 8

Near Revelstoke

The terrain is gradually smoothing out  now

Starting to look like Kamloops; dry, tumbleweeds, hot in summer, cold in winter

Doo Dads

Entering one of many parts of B.C. thats been plagued by wildfires and pine beetles.

This is the culprit; about the size of a grain of rice

and most damage is done by the larva introducing a fungus into the trees blocking the flow of water to the tree.

Red indicates how wide spread this bugger is, and the info i found is 4 yrs old. The pine beetles life span is a year and the damage dosn't show up until the following summer when the red foliage appears and by then the wood is blue and unusable for most purposes. Within 3 or 4 yrs the tree loses all its foliage and its life.

The only thing that stops it is high winds or -40ºC for a prolonged time.

Most of the wood is destroyed with a just small amount being useful as a novelty wood. The wood is a bluish colour.