W. Canada's Pine Beetle Explosion Ravaging BC Forests, Moving East

[hatrack]

SMITHERS, B.C. -- Forests in interior British Columbia are changing color, turning from green to red as they get infected by the pine bark beetle, and then from red to gray once they are dead. The minuscule beetles, the size of a grain of rice, are making visible global warming's impact on western North America. If you're a witness, it's an unsettling summer.

The beetles have killed lodgepole pine trees over an area the size of Iceland. They've moved east, infecting trees across the Continental Divide in Alberta. "The danger is the beetles will cross over into jack pine habitat, and then head toward the East Coast," said James Agee, University of Washington forest ecology professor. Or, in the words of retired U.S. Forest Service scientist Jesse Logan, "There is a continental-scale event waiting to happen."

The infestation has spread out of the western Chilcotin Plateau, where bitter winter temperatures previously kept the beetle population in check. "The winters are no longer cold enough," said David Suzuki, scientist host of CBC-TV's "The Nature of Things."

In the United States, similar conditions threaten the white bark pine at higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains. White bark pine seeds are a vital food source for grizzly bears. "Typically, the climate up high is too harsh for the pine bark beetle, but we've seen a continuous warming trend in the last 30 years. White bark pine is a sitting duck for the beetle," said Logan.

EDIT

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/282173_joel23.html?source=mypi

[sam sarrha]

1. drought.. happened in California during their bad drought, in normal

conditions the trees flood the insects out with sap when they drill holes into the tree.. during drought there isn't enough sap.

global heating, we are next