EMILY GUERIN, BYLINE: In Bear Valley Springs, Mark Anderson and his partner bought a house to get away from city stress.
But then, as he tells it, he found a whole new form of stress – the pine bark beetle.
ANDERSON: You couldn’t even see the house from the street.
Once his trees died, Anderson had to cut them down.
He cuts the trees down.
GUERIN: It can cost up to a thousand dollars to pay a crew like Witten’s to cut down and haul away a single tree.
ED WEAVER: We love the trees and the pine trees – you know, you smell them – and the squirrels running around.
ADRIAN DAS: Even after this very wet winter we’re still seeing trees dying at abnormally high rates in the forests where we’re looking.
GUERIN: His house in the mountains is on the market now.
For NPR News, I’m Emily Guerin in Bear Valley Springs.