Okay, so this is going to be a bit of rant, bear with me.
There is an extinction level threat going on in the pine trees of the rocky mountains right this second, and nobody is talking about it. From the Yukon down to Nevada, trees are being killed at a positively frightening pace. The culprit? The mountain pine beetle. Usually, when you see one species killing off another at such an alarming rate, it is because the killer is an alien invasive species, but this case is interesting because the mountain pine beetle is actually endemic to the region. Under normal conditions, the MPB helps the ecosystem by killing off weak or sick trees, leaving canopy space and dead biomass for new trees and other flora to grow into. This keeps a forest healthy by preventing stagnation. The way this is supposed to work, is that the MPB is able to smell certain compounds emitted by a tree in distress, are attracted to it, and consequently attack it. Therefore, it is relatively common historically for epidemics of these beetles to break out after severe weather events, particularly hard seasons, fires, or other environmental stressors. Some of these epidemics were even quite serious. This one, however, is different. It is already TEN TIMES worse than any before it, and it’s not stopping.
Can you guess the culprit? Motherfucking climate change. The climate is getting warmer on average, staying warmer longer, and getting warmer at higher elevations than ever before. The trees aren’t happy with this, and while they could live with it on their own, the chemical distress signals they are sending out are their own death bells. Because it is warmer at higher elevations, the beetles are killing trees at these higher elevations. Because the beetles are killing trees at these higher elevations, the beetles are spreading to the eastern face of the mountain range for the first time ever. Because the beetles are on the eastern face of the mountain range for the first time, they have millions of tons more of biomass to kill.
This epidemic is serious, and scientists and policy-makers alike are looking into ways to stop it. Most foresters, ecologists, and environmental scientists are in agreement that it can’t be stopped, and the best thing to do is to let it run its course and hope there are still some pine trees left in the end. Policy makers, on the other hand, influenced (of course) by the logging industry, would like to clear-cut huge swathes of forest, to try to create boundaries that the epidemic cannot cross. Sounds like not a terrible idea, right?
Let me tell you why it’s actually about the worst thing that could be done. Mountain pine beetles and their larvae will be living in the dead timber even after you cut the trees down. This timber will be harvested and transported to somewhere else. Wherever else it is transported to is likely to have some pine trees. The mountain pine beetles will then have a fresh forest to destroy. This is how species get introduced accidentally where they shouldn’t be; we saw the same scenario play out with firewood infested with the emerald ash borer a few years ago, and that’s still a major problem in the midwest and on the eastern seaboard.
Basically, we don’t currently have a solution to the problem. We’ve tried pesticide, but the beetles don’t seem to care, and their spread is far too vast at this point for any treatment to be feasible. We’ve tried enhancing the soil conditions for the trees so that they won’t emit distress signals, but this can only work in very limited areas. Our pine trees are as doomed as the chestnut trees of the Appalachians during the chestnut blight outbreak of the 18th century. The forests in the Appalachians still haven’t recovered, and there is some evidence that they’re actually still declining as a result of the ecosystem imbalance.
Moral of the story: we fucked ourselves in a big way, and lots of us still won’t admit there’s a problem
WAKE UP SHEEPLE, CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL AND HAS REAL IMPACTS.
End of rant.
July 13, 2018 at 10:59 pm
I hear you. It’s sad when nature fights nature and yes, we humans have a lot to answer for.
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July 13, 2018 at 11:38 pm
Normally it’s a fair fight when nature fights nature; this time the fight has been thrown completely out of balance, and I’m not sure there’s even a solution!
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July 14, 2018 at 12:02 am
Climates change. The Earth has been both far warmer and far colder than it is now. Species come and go. Such is life. Survive or succumb. Man is also part of nature and has as much right to alter his environment as the lowly beetle, and who is to say the next generations of trees or the next species of tree won’t be stronger, thanks to Man and/or beetle?
Also, a small correction, re: “trees and other fauna” – I think you mean flora.
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July 14, 2018 at 12:44 am
I agree that the climate has changed before, and also that species come and go. However, the climate has never seen change quite so rapid (that we know of) as it currently is seeing, and that’s going to have a lot of consequences that a lot of people don’t see right now. You say man has a right to alter the environment? I have a right to drive off a cliff, but that doesn’t make it a good idea! If things continue the way they are, we’re looking at a mass extinction event – maybe not the worst one the Earth has seen, but certainly the worst one man has seen. With the human population growing as fast as it is (rapidly approaching its carrying capacity, in fact) humanity quite simply cannot afford to cause a mass extinction event. The loss of biodiversity will certainly impact agriculture in a huge way, and the loss of life will number in the billions. I’m not a tree hugger for the sake of preserving nature just the way it is, I’m a tree hugger for much more practical reasons. All that said, you have a much more realistic way of looking at things than a lot of people, and though we may have differing opinions on the subject, at least you’re not denying the science.
Also, thank you for catching that typo, I will correct it!
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July 14, 2018 at 12:40 am
I’ve heard about this before but I don’t remember where.
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July 14, 2018 at 12:45 am
I believe I posted the same thing on Pencliff a month or so again, that’s the first place I published it!
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July 14, 2018 at 12:01 pm
Yeah but I think I must’ve heard about it in college from my ecology professor or something like that. It sounds familiar in that way.
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July 14, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Okay I finally actually read the post. Thank you for the additional details which I either never knew or forgot.
I have a sci-fi mindset and always think bioengineering is the solution, but we don’t have the technology and the ethicists are all against it.
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July 14, 2018 at 12:58 pm
I have the same bioengineering mindset, (having a degree in microbiology and expertise in numerous molecular biology techniques will do that), but the problem goes beyond ethics. The issue is that it’s impossible to predict how a bioengineered solution will react in the environment. No amount of lab testing can replicate the real world, and there’s a significant risk of losing control of the situation if we try to enact something like that!
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July 14, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Bugger.
Bubububut… bioengineeeeeering! >_<
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July 14, 2018 at 1:12 pm
It would probably make a good backstory for a dystopian sci-fi novel, but alas, I am no novelist.
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July 14, 2018 at 2:09 am
Thanks for sharing this, an interesting read. We’re starting to see the consequences of climate change triggering other unexpected events like this. Scary.
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July 14, 2018 at 4:24 am
Thanks for reading, it absolutely is scary!
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July 14, 2018 at 2:40 am
Here in Alaska it’s the Spruce Beetle. But… the other problem is we don’t let wildfires burn and do what needs to be done…. because we need to protect people and their homes… which is a good thing, but also an unhealthy thing for the forest. So, it’s one of those hard things. We need it but we can’t have it. Vicious cycle, my friend, vicious damn cycle.
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July 14, 2018 at 4:25 am
A lot of problems with very few good answers, and most of the time we can’t agree on even a bad answer the problem goes unaddressed!
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July 14, 2018 at 9:37 am
I love the Rockies and have been seeing the desolation every year. One of my best friends heads up the invasive species program, here, for the state of Wisconsin. Everyone in the U.S. should be worried! It will travel to the forests of northern Canada and to the east, where it will ride back down to southern climates and take out the pines there.
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July 14, 2018 at 10:40 am
I didn’t even realize it was moving West, but I did know it was coming East!
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July 14, 2018 at 10:48 am
I’m so glad I’m following your blog. Where I live in the Midwest, there are skeleton families of ash trees, victims of the emerald ash borer. The dead were all very old and very big, and their loss is huge in many ways, not the least of which is the former forest is now being subdivided for housing. So no replanting, no respect for holding space for something new to emerge. Well, besides another housing project. I really love the way you have described the cycle of what is going on. Rather than a rant, it felt like a passionate exploration of what you are seeing and want to convey to the rest of us. And I’m grateful for that! I feel a poem coming…
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July 14, 2018 at 10:58 am
I used to live in Ohio and we had an ash tree in our backyard die from the ash borer! You make a good point about the forests not being allowed to recover naturally. I’m glad it came off more politely than a rant, and I’m happy to have you as a follower!
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July 16, 2018 at 12:32 pm
I used to live in Montana and you can drive along the Rocky Mountain Front on the east side of Glacier NP and see literally miles and miles off dead trees. We used to always speculate about what would happen if a forest fire ever reached it. Have you ever burned a used dead Christmas tree in the spring? They go up like a massive torch. It could be the 1910 fire all over again, but worse because the trees are dead and dried. Not sure what the solution is, but guaranteed the glow would be seen from space. Yes, it is a massive problem, not to mention the spread of other diseases such as white pine blister rust that is decimating the white pine in Idaho and elsewhere ad well as needle cast disease affecting and killing the Ponderosa Pine. Thought provoking post.
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July 16, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Thank you for your first hand anecdote, I didn’t know a lot of that! I’m glad you enjoyed the post
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July 31, 2018 at 2:02 am
Of course, in the largest sense, we’re seeing the fifth or sixth great extinction. This time brought about by humans, but just as deadly as a meteor strike.
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