We have beetle kills and drought kills. However, the drought makes life easier for the beetles. They thrive during prolonged drought. I’m no expert but a long time local told me the trees can expel the beetles if they can get enough moisture. That makes sense for one tree on my property. It is a ponderosa pine that last summer looked like it would certainly be dead soon. It was “bleeding“ sap like crazy, lost most of its needles, and the woodpeckers really worked it over. Then, we had a very wet monsoon season and it made a comeback. It is still alive but is definitely sad looking. It seems the ponderosa pines are affected the worst by the beetles. It’s the skinny one in the middle. I have another one, much larger, that is barely hanging on. I do not think it will be making a comeback. There are recently dead ponderosa pines all over around here. Douglas Fir seems to be doing better.
Oh, we do not get nearly as much snow as CO. And, it doesn’t stay very long. Snowmobile rentals used to be common here in the 70s and 80s. No need for them now.
As far as the monsoon cycle here, I am new here and have to go off what the old timers tell me. Basically, the real issue is how long there is no rain in the non-monsoon season. Seems it is all or nothing nowadays. Not much snow and prolonged dry periods with no rain at all. The dry seasons have always been dry, just not this dry. And there was a lot more snow over the winters. I think the lack of snow is what really hurts the trees. They are distressed during the winter with little snow to help and then, weakened, a bone dry couple of months in the spring does them in. Light rain in the spring has turned into no rain. A few years ago the water table got so low the village was having water trucked every day for weeks. Restaurants were not allowed to serve tap water at all.
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