Vail Mountain Snotel site a victim of beetle kill

By John LaConte

VAIL — The deadly pine beetle that has ravaged forests across the Rocky Mountains isn’t only affecting trees. This week, snow scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Snow Survey Program visited one of their snow telemetry sites on Vail Mountain to look at how the pine beetle has affected the snow recordings on that site. Snow telemetry, or Snowtel, is an automated system of more than 600 snowpack and water measuring sensors operated by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the United States Department of Agriculture around the Western U.S. Generally, they’re located in remote high-mountain watersheds. Diane Johnson, …

Source:: Vail Daily Feed