The Rockies are dying. We saw whole hillsides of grey dead, lodgepole and ponderosa pines, victims of a fatal combination of global warming, poor management and a sudden aggressive change in the behaviour of the tiny mountain pine beetle, which bores into the trees and rapidly kills them if their numbers are great enough. Previously they only killed mature trees at low altitude. The warmer weather has allowed them to greatly expand the territory and the amount of time each year they can operate – and to reduce their life cycle from two to one year. Coupled with an under funded park service, the result is devastating. A whole forest of dead trees will inevitably lead to huge forest fires in years to come.
We may well have unwittingly come to Yellowstone in the last year when it looked so stunning. The creeping grey plague is spreading even in the high altitudes here, and there is no stopping it. Though immature trees are pushing up between the dead hulks, they are extremely slow growing and it may take at least a couple of generations to restore the forests of this region, even if they can develop resistant strains and see off other effects of global warming. Meanwhile the stress on the rest of the ecosystem will be enormous. More at:
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2252
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/garden/02tree.html
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