Carnage in Colorado
The pine beetle epidemic that has been sweeping the western United States and Canada for nearly the last 10 years is old news. By now most people have heard that due to warmer winters and recent drought cycles, these rice-sized pests have been infesting trees at increasing rates since the start of the decade—10 million acres of pine has fallen victim in Colorado alone, and forecasts remain grim throughout the West.
And until recently, most of the pine beetle attention has been concentrated on the large swaths of lodgepole pines affected in Colorado, Montana, and British Columbia. But, unlike lodgepoles, which reside in heavily forested, lower-elevation areas and tend to regenerate (relatively) quickly, the whitebark pine, half of which are found in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) of northwest Wyoming, occupies some of the harshest, most exposed terrain in the mountain environment (often above 8,500 feet), and a new seed can take up to 10 years just to germinate. By the same token, these trees can live up to 1,500 years.
Now, as the climate continues to warm, the beetles are heading higher and attacking the less numerous and more critical whitebarks with equal fervor. Recent estimates peg up to 95 percent of whitebark stands as already under attack by the pine beetle. Multiple animal species, including the Clark’s nutcracker and the grizzly bear, depend on the whitebark pine for its highly nutritious seeds. The shade of the whitebark helps shelter late-season snowpack and regulate spring and summer runoff, and many scientists fear the ecosystem could be radically altered by the tree’s diminishing numbers.
Many in the West have admitted defeat and resigned themselves to fire up the chainsaws and clear out as many of the rust-colored trees as possible. But some aren’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. Some people are ready to put up a fight.
David Gonzales, a Jackson, Wyo.-based writer, filmmaker and photographer, co-created TreeFight, a grassroots campaign set on doing just that. This past winter, Gonzalez identified a handful of critical zones throughout the GYE and has been conducting a series of hikes throughout the summer to identify major kill areas and staple the still-living trees with packets of verbenone.
Verbenone is a natural organic compound that mimics insect pheromones and tells other beetles that the tree is occupied, essentially hanging a No Vacancy sign on the remaining healthy trees. The success rates of verbenone are still questionable, but Gonzalez believes just getting people to come on these hikes and learn more about the issue can have dramatic effects on public awareness. After verbenone season ends in the next few weeks, Gonzalez and his fellow TreeFighters will focus on the science behind the whitebark, and they’ll need help long after the hiking season is over.
To join the fight or donate to the cause, visit TreeFight.org.
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Tags: bark beetle, conservation, environment, green, yellowstone national park
Hi all. I am a professional landscaper and lay biologist, and studied this cycle extensively.There are many factors at work here.
First, the extant heath of the forest somewhat determines which trees the beetles choose to attack. They actua…lly use a type of sonar to assess whether a tree is stressed (which is pretty effin cool if you think about it). The stressed trees are the ones they go after most, often killing trees that are sick/ declining anyway, making way for the natural fire cycle of the forest.
This cycle can be crucial to the health of the forest, as I’m sure many of you know, by releasing plant seeds that can only be opened by fire (like Ponderosa pine), clearing out duff and underbrush, and creating a layer of high-nutrient ash. Another, oft-missed concept, is that when a bunch of mature trees are taken out of a forest’s ecosystem, the release of water is immense! All the extra water can then reach lower elevations, where it will positively impact stream ecologies.
Without the fire cycle (aka: when humans decide they don’t want periodic forest fires to happen, even tho it is part of the natural order of things), the beetle life cycle is never interrupted, and ideal habitat (uninterrupted, dense stands of old, homogeneous, large-diameter trees) is produced.
Global warming also plays a part, as long-enough freezes, or cold-enough (30 below zero) freezes at critical times can also interrupt the beetles’ life cycle.
As far as natural predators, since these beetles are natives (not from Asia), there are some (nematodes, predator beetles, woodpeckers), but again, their populations are all out of whack because of climate change and drought.
So, really– it’s a bigger mess than this article really indicates- yay!
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