The Tagish Campground has a different look these days.

Trees killed by the flood of the 2007 have all been removed.

That has left a large, open area over more than half of the campground that has been turned into RV sites, replacing the

sheltered individual sites typical of territorial campgrounds.

"It really looks different now,” deputy chief Danny Cresswell of the Carcross-Tagish First Nation said in an interview this morning.

"When you drive by, it really looks open, but we really had not choice.”

Cresswell said the dead spruce posed a fire hazard and safety concerns with the potential for blowing over in the wind.

Up until about a week ago or so, individuals were invited to remove trees for their own firewood. The first nation sent in a crew recently to knock down what was still standing and prepare the campground for opening this long weekend, he said.

In addition to creating the new RV sites and bringing in gravel to cover areas which are still damp from the flood, the crew created five new sheltered sites in an adjacent area of green trees unaffected by the flood.

The deputy chief said there have been discussions about re-vegetating the area that was clear cut.

The first nation inherited ownership of the campground through its land claim and self-government agreements signed in 2005.

Rob Legare, the forest health forester with the Yukon's forestry branch, said spruce trees in the Tagish Campground were first inspected for bark beetles in August 2008 during routine roadside surveys.

It was decided because of the flooding the year before that they'd check out the low lying area, he explained.

Trees under stress, he said, are magnets for bark beetles, as the trees actually give off a chemical signal of distress which the beetles pick up on.

"Sure enough, we found some beetle attack.”

While the trees were ultimately killed by the flooding, the forester explained, it was their stressful situation that drew in the concentration of beetles.

Legare said because the infestation wasn't detected until late summer, they weren't able to conduct a full assessment.

Last summer, however, inspections were conducted on every single spruce tree in the campground and in adjacent areas, the forester explained.

He said there was evidence of some level of beetle attack on approximately 200 trees, though just 31 trees had a low concentration of spruce beetles in the summer of 2009.

The concentration of beetles recorded in 2008 were most of the ips bark beetle variety, with a lower level of spruce bark beetle, Legare explained.

He suspects the low survival rate of beetles in the Tagish Campground from the summer of '08 to '09 had something to do with the moist ground conditions, as ips overwinter in the duff.

The 31 infested trees, he noted, were cut down this past winter and burned to prevent any chance of beetles spreading, Legare explained.

He said eight areas of concern around Marsh Lake were inspected to see if they'd been hit by the flooding and subsequent beetle attacks.

There were 11 trees removed this winter from one other area, the Penny Brook Lane, just up the road from the campground, Legare said.

He said he'd expected to find an issue in the South M'Clintock Bay, but there was none.

The different areas assessed are discussed in the upcoming Forest Health Report scheduled for publication in about a month or so.

It's natural to find spruce bark beetles on trees, the forester said.

He explained it's only when conditions draw the beetles together in large numbers, such as with entire stands of trees under stress at the campground, that the potential grows for outbreak of beetle infestation.

It's believed the widespread infestation of 50,000 hectares in the Dezadeash Lake region during the late 1930s and 1940s was sparked by the construction of the Haines Road.

Beetles, Legare explained, are not only attracted to live trees under duress, but also fancy green trees that have been cut and haven't yet dried out.

He said it's believed the construction of the Haines Road, with all that fresh, juicy green spruce left lying along the highway right-of-way, kick-started the Dezadeash infestation.

Similarly it's believed the bark beetle infestation of the 1970s was triggered by the line cutting for the new Aishihik power line, Legare said.

The current infestation in the Kluane region, he said, is believed to be the first associated with trees stressed by the changing climate.

He said even individual property owners can invite isolated problems if they drop evergreen trees and just leave them there in the summer, during the flying season for beetles, when they are on the move looking for food and mates.

It's best to find some way to promote drying, either by rolling the logs to expose the bottom side to sunlight, or peeling off strips of bark, Legare said.

Cutting in the fall, he said, allows the tree to dry over the winter.