From a helicopter 1,000 feet in the air, forester David Belcher peered down at the ridges and slopes surrounding Unicoi State Park and the nearby tourist resort of Helen.
"Look at that hillside. Every pine tree is gone," Belcher said, pointing to a slope that was brown with dead trees. Normally in spring, the slope would sport a lush green.
The trees were killed by the Southern pine beetle, an insect the size of a grain of rice that has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in tree loss across the South during the past two years. In some states, including South Carolina and Tennessee, foresters say the beetle epidemic is the worst in their states' history.
Page on Beetle (photo above)