 I'm standing next to a forest that has been severely impacted by the mountain pine beetle. As you can see, many of the trees have been removed in what foresters call a salvage logging operation. Salvage logging is simply the removal of dead trees from a forest affected by a disturbance in order to recover economic value that would otherwise be lost. In other words, salvage sales provide a way to generate income from timber killed or damaged by insects, disease, fire, or high winds. Salvage logging often also includes the cutting of live trees at the edges of beetle infested pockets where trees are still green but currently infested. These trees are likely to eventually succumb to the beetles and are sometimes harvested alongside the dead trees to slow the spread of the beetles. Cutting these additional green trees also increases the economic viability of the timber sale and can be beneficial for overall forest health. Many forests in the western United States are severely overstocked, resulting in trees that are susceptible to a number of other issues as well, including wildfire. Clearing all dead trees out of a dense stand such as this through salvage logging can often reduce the need for further cuttings later on. Usually with salvage logging, foresters are trying to establish regeneration of young trees as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is ideal to leave a stand as open as possible to maximize the amount of sunlight that reaches the ground. Income generated from salvage logging sales can be put back into forest restoration efforts. For the University of Wyoming Extension, I'm Tina Russell, Exploring the Nature of Wyoming.