The San Diego Union reports today:
Bugs and diseases are killing trees at an alarming rate across the West, from the spruce forests of Alaska to the oak woodlands near the San Diego-Tijuana border. Several scientists said the growing threat appears linked to global warming.
Yet another local, traditionally conservative media outlet that is outreporting the supposedly liberal mainstream media (see “NBC News ignores climate change, blows the bark beetle story“). This story has an excellent figure I haven’t seen before:
The story also has some data on total U.S. tree mortality I hadn’t seen:
The report said that from 1997 to 2003, insect-and disease-caused tree mortality quadrupled to 12.2 million acres in the United States. It also said the amount of forestland hit by bugs and disease each year is far greater than the amount that burns in wildfires….
Of particular concern in the West are bark beetles, a large group of insects that includes some very aggressive species.
“Several of the current bark-beetle outbreaks across North America are the largest and most severe in recorded history,” said Barbara Bentz, an entomologist for the Forest Service in Utah.
In British Columbia, mountain pine beetles have infested more than 30 million acres.
Climate change is making United States hospitable to a variety of undesirable invasive species:
Over the past six years, the number of invasive bark beetles detected in California has doubled to 20 species. Scientists expect the trend to continue as insects from Mexico and the Southwest spread north.
“We are starting to pick up more cases of Mexican insects coming to the U.S. It really does suggest there’s a pattern” related to climate, said Steven Seybold, who studies insects for the Forest Service in Davis.
Kudos to the San Diego Union for such a thorough and informative story on this important subject.
Related Posts:
- Nature on stunning new climate feedback: Beetle tree kill releases more carbon than fires
- Climate-Driven Pest Devours N. American Forests
- Global warming and the California wildfires
- Global warming and the California wildfires — Update
- The NY Times Blows the Wildfire Story
- Wildfire Season Smashes Records — and the Media Keeps Blowing the Story
- Megafires are a Megaworry
- Global Warming = Bush gets Fired
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
That’s my hometown paper, one of the few major newspapers endorsing Palin/McCain, BTW….
Uhh … San Diego, surrounded by fire-prone forest global warming is making more fire-prone, has a paper endorsing McCain/Palin?
I had thought the Republican motto was ‘drill baby drill’, but now I guess it’s ‘burn baby burn’.
Here in the Florida panhandle we’ve lost a lot of pines to bark beetles as well. The local wisdom is that the trees were weakened by the recent spate of hurricanes and the bark beetles finished them off. Our beautiful blue herons rely on the pines for nesting and they are now fighting over the few remaining trees. Just a few springs ago, the noise of baby herons made it difficult to carry on a conversation outdoors. Now it is rare to hear their squawky chatter.
You cannot trust this research because a huge amount of it was done with earmarks. “I kid you not.”
Uhh … San Diego, surrounded by fire-prone forest global warming is making more fire-prone, has a paper endorsing McCain/Palin?
In some respects, the San Diego Union-Tribune is like a low-rent Wall Street Journal — first-rate reporters and nutcase editorial writers.
Pine Beetles, as the name indicates infest a particular species. So rather than killing a forest, is it possible that beetle outbreaks are the beginning of greater forest diversification of species?
A forest of mostly lodge pole pines might be desirable to the logging industry but maybe the beetles aren’t killing the forest as much as just changing it. Beetles like fire could be part of a beneficial natural cycle.
Of course denialism is getting worse too.
Reports of increasing cases of passive doubters, more voices of the uncommitted, more declarations of ignorance, and the most distressing of all – more paid professional skeptics.
And we see the beginnings of a Magical Wizard of Oz group –”pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” This group thinks that clean coal will be the solution, that nuclear will rescue us, and that there is no pressing problem – we can just wait and fix it later.
Delusional denialism is our biggest problem
re to rick
Single species stands, I suspect, would allow for a greater amplitude of infection, and faster rate of expansion. That said, many of these god-forsaken critters are non-native and invasive. Additionally, each species has a freeze tolerance that results in limits to its habitats. What were once sporadic incursions into more northern areas, fewer deep freezes allow for sustained infestations. So, trade gives you non-natives, and global warming allows them to thrive, and homogeneity allows them to explode. Yeah for trifectas!
Pine Beetles, as the name indicates infest a particular species. So rather than killing a forest, is it possible that beetle outbreaks are the beginning of greater forest diversification of species?
A forest of mostly lodge pole pines might be desirable to the logging industry but maybe the beetles aren’t killing the forest as much as just changing it. Beetles like fire could be part of a beneficial natural cycle.
In the Intermountain West, this is not true for the MPB (in addition to them eating Engelmann spruce).
Lodgepole are naturally mainly single-spp stands. That’s how it works.
Best,
D
Dano — spp?
Nobody on the east coast but me seems to recognize that ALL our trees will soon be stone cold dead. They are in decline – the hardwoods and the conifers. It’s making me crazy that what is so obvious if you pay attention to the symptoms of tree death are being ignored.
In 5 to 10 years all of the sycamores, maples, hickory trees, walnuts, ash, plus all pines, will be skeletons. We will have wildfires, and the decay will contribute to climate change. The birds will have nowhere to live.
It’s breaking my heart.