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There was a decline in tree mortality in 2019 due to bark beetles compared to 2018, but “large epidemics of spruce beetle and roundheaded/western pine beetles in Colorado continue to expand,” the report said.

The move comes as officials try to reduce fire danger amid a spruce beetle infestation, the Anchorage Daily News reported .

In terms of forest health, the homogeneity of the age class of the trees allowed the spruce beetle to run rapidly along the Continental Divide.

And in 2017, invasive pests like the spruce beetle continued to whittle away the state’s forests.

The spruce beetle infested 206,000 acres last year, bringing the pest’s toll to 1.78 million acres since 1996.