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TELLURIDE — The dead trees along roadways coated with magnesium chloride have been commonly observed.
Well in advance of the bark beetle epidemic, you couild see the dead trees along Interstate 70 in Colorado, and you could also see them on the highways near Telluride.
But the trees are not being killed by the salt and traces of heavy metals contained in the magnesium chloride seeping to the roots of the trees, as had been theorized.
Rather, it’s the speed of the car tires mashing the salt into the snow, and spinning both up into the air as a salty aerosol that coats the needles of evergreens. This, in turn, blocks sunlight and prevents photosynthesis from occurring.
Ed Fink, a consultant to the Colorado Department of Transportation, told a group in Telluride recently that the distance the aerosol spreads laterally from the road is directly proportional to the speed of tree.
In other words, the slower the speed of vehicles, the fewer the number of dead trees
Well in advance of the bark beetle epidemic, you couild see the dead trees along Interstate 70 in Colorado, and you could also see them on the highways near Telluride.
But the trees are not being killed by the salt and traces of heavy metals contained in the magnesium chloride seeping to the roots of the trees, as had been theorized.
Rather, it’s the speed of the car tires mashing the salt into the snow, and spinning both up into the air as a salty aerosol that coats the needles of evergreens. This, in turn, blocks sunlight and prevents photosynthesis from occurring.
Ed Fink, a consultant to the Colorado Department of Transportation, told a group in Telluride recently that the distance the aerosol spreads laterally from the road is directly proportional to the speed of tree.
In other words, the slower the speed of vehicles, the fewer the number of dead trees
