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A bark beetle is the common name for the subfamily of beetles Scolytinae. Previously, this was considered a distinct family (Scolytidae), but is now understood to be a specialized clade of the "true weevil" family (Curculionidae). Although the term "bark beetle" refers to the fact that many species feed in the inner bark (phloem) layer of trees, the subfamily also has many species with other lifestyles, including some that bore into wood, feed in fruit and seeds, or tunnel into herbaceous plants. Well-known species are members of the type genus Scolytus, namely the European elm bark beetle S. multistriatus and the large elm bark beetle S. scolytus, which like the American elm bark beetle Hylurgopinus rufipes, transmit Dutch elm disease fungi (Ophiostoma). The mountain pine beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae, southern pine beetle Dendroctonus frontalis, and their near relatives are major pests of conifer forests in North America. A similarly aggressive species in Europe is the spruce ips Ips typographus. A tiny bark beetle, the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei is a major pest on coffee plantations around the world.
The mountain pine beetle is a species of bark beetle native to the forests of western North America from Mexico to central British Columbia. It has a hard black exoskeleton, and measures approximately 5 millimetres, about the size of a grain of rice.
Flat Tops Wilderness Area is the second largest U.S. Wilderness Area in Colorado. It is 235,214 acres (951.88 km2), with 38,870 acres (157.3 km2) in Routt National Forest and 196,344 acres (794.58 km2) in White River National Forest. It was designated a wilderness area in 1975. Trappers Lake, located in the north of the area, was the lake that inspired Arthur Carhart, a United States Forest Service official, to plead for wilderness preservation.
The Weminuche Wilderness is a wilderness area in southwest Colorado managed by the United States Forest Service as part of the San Juan National Forest on the west side of the Continental Divide and the Rio Grande National Forest on the east side of the divide. The Weminuche Wilderness was designated by Congress in 1975, and expanded by the Colorado Wilderness Acts of 1980 and 1993. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of the town of Silverton, 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Durango, and 8 miles (13 km) west of South Fork. At 499,771 acres (2,022.50 km2), it is the largest wilderness area in the state of Colorado. Elevation in the wilderness ranges from 7,700 feet (2,300 m) along the Animas River to 14,093 feet (4,296 m) at the summit of Windom Peak.
Krummholz — also called knieholz — is a type of stunted, deformed vegetation encountered in the subarctic and subalpine tree line landscapes, shaped by continual exposure to fierce, freezing winds. Under these conditions, trees can only survive where they are sheltered by rock formations or snow cover. As the lower portion of these trees continues to grow, the coverage becomes extremely dense near the ground. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the formation is known as tuckamore. Krummholz trees are also found on beaches such as the Oregon coast, where trees can become much taller than their subalpine cousins.
Spruce–fir forests are type of forest found in the Northern Hemisphere dominated by spruce and fir trees. These forests are often considered to be climax forests, with the two main tree genera able to reproduce in their own shade.
Mill Creek Wilderness is a wilderness area located in the Ochoco National Forest of central Oregon. It was established in 1984 and comprises 17,400 acres (7,040 ha). Of the three wilderness areas in the Ochoco National Forest - Mill Creek, Bridge Creek, and Black Canyon - Mill Creek is the largest and most heavily used.
Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is a state forest in Lake County, California that covers the northwest of Boggs Mountain. It was founded in 1949, and came into operation in 1950 when most of the site had been clear cut. The purpose was to demonstrate good practices in restoring and managing a forest. The state forest was open for recreational use, including camping, hiking, mountain biking etc. The 2015 Valley Fire destroyed 80% of the trees. The state forest as of 2021 was replanting saplings.
The biogeoclimatic zones of British Columbia are units of a classification system used by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests for the Canadian province's fourteen different broad, climatic ecosystems. The classification system, termed Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification, exists independently of other ecoregion systems, one created by the World Wildlife Fund and the other in use by Environment Canada, which is based on one created by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and also in use by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The system of biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification was partly created for the purpose of managing forestry resources, but is also in use by the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and other provincial agencies. A biogeoclimatic zone is defined as "a geographic area having similar patterns of energy flow, vegetation and soils as a result of a broadly homogenous macroclimate."
State Forest State Park is a Colorado State Park located in Jackson and Larimer counties east of Walden, Colorado, United States. The 70,838-acre (286.67 km2) park was established in 1970 in the Medicine Bow Range of the Rocky Mountains. Facilities include a visitors' center, 187 campsites, over 60 dispersed camping sites, 15 cabins and yurts, picnic sites, boat ramps and 94 miles (151 km) of hiking trails.
Dendroctonus rufipennis, the spruce beetle, is a species of bark beetle native to British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Northern Manitoba, the Yukon, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Maine. They are known to destroy forests of spruce trees including Engelmann, White, Sitka, and Colorado blue spruce. Adults average 4 to 7 mm in length.
The ecology of the Rocky Mountains is diverse due to the effects of a variety of environmental factors. The Rocky Mountains are the major mountain range in western North America, running from the far north of British Columbia in Canada to New Mexico in the southwestern United States, climbing from the Great Plains at or below 1,800 feet (550 m) to peaks of over 14,000 feet (4,300 m). Temperature and rainfall varies greatly also and thus the Rockies are home to a mixture of habitats including the alpine, subalpine and boreal habitats of the Northern Rocky Mountains in British Columbia and Alberta, the coniferous forests of Montana and Idaho, the wetlands and prairie where the Rockies meet the plains, a different mix of conifers on the Yellowstone Plateau in Wyoming and in the high Rockies of Colorado and New Mexico, and finally the alpine tundra of the highest elevations.
Grosmannia clavigera is a species of sac fungus that causes blue stain in wood. It spreads to lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and whitebark pine trees from the body and a special structure in the heads of mountain pine beetles. The blue stain fungus has evolved a relationship with mountain pine beetles that allow them to travel from tree to tree on a special structure in the beetle's heads and stops the tree from producing resin to pitch out or kill the beetle, encouraging the pine beetle infestation occurring all along the Rocky Mountains from Mexico into Canada. The beetles are able to mine and lay eggs while avoiding the tree's defenses. The 33 Mb genome of this fungus was sequenced in 2009.
South Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located on Highway 40 northwest of Lillooet, British Columbia. The park, which is 56,796 ha. in size, was established on April 18, 2001, and It was created out of a portion of the Spruce Lake Protected Area. The park is located on three Indigenous Nations: The Tsilhqot’in, St’at’imc, and Secwepemc.
The U.S. state of Wyoming faces a broad array of environmental issues stemming from natural resource extraction, species extirpation, non-native species introduction, and pollution. Wildlife species that have been affected by these issues include:
The Canadian forestry industry is a major contributor to the Canadian economy. With 39% of Canada's land acreage covered by forests, the country contains 9% of the world's forested land. The forests are made up primarily of spruce, poplar and pine. The Canadian forestry industry is composed of three main sectors: solid wood manufacturing, pulp and paper and logging. Forests, as well as forestry are managed by The Department of Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian Forest Service, in cooperation with several organizations which represent government groups, officials, policy experts, and numerous other stakeholders. Extensive deforestation by European settlers during the 18th and 19th centuries has been halted by more modern policies. Today, less than 1% of Canada's forests are affected by logging each year. Canada is the 2nd largest exporter of wood products, and produces 12.3% of the global market share. Economic concerns related to forestry include greenhouse gas emissions, biotechnology, biological diversity, and infestation by pests such as the mountain pine beetle.
Ips is a genus of beetles in the family Curculionidae, the true weevils. They are bark beetles, members of the subfamily Scolytinae. Species are distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Some are known as introduced species in Australia and Africa. Many species are pests of forest trees, especially pines and spruces. They are known commonly as engraver beetles, ips engraver beetles, and pine engravers.
Dendroctonus valens, the red turpentine beetle, is a species of bark beetle native to the forests of North America, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. It has been introduced to China where it has become invasive. In its native range it causes little damage, but in China it is a destructive pest and has killed more than six million pine trees.
The current bark beetle infestation in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States was first detected in 1996. It involved the Mountain pine beetle, which has since spread across millions of acres of dense forest land. In addition, Spruce beetle populations have also been growing in the area in recent years and are further contributing to the existing outbreak. One of the main factors limiting bark beetle population growth is the temperature they can survive at and climate change has raised the average temperature in the region resulting in warmer winters and hotter, drier summers. This not only sped up the bark beetle reproduction process by providing more time per year for them to complete their developmental stages, moisture stressing due to hotter temperatures also weakens the trees’ defense against attacks by reducing resin production. Furthermore, forest management has also played a significant role as many forests in the region have very dense tree populations which facilitates faster spreading from tree to tree, as well as weakening tree defenses further by stressing them through excessive competition.
References
- ↑ "Spruce Beetle - Colorado State Forest Service". Colorado State Forest Service. Colorado State Forest Service. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
- ↑ Finley, Bruce (15 February 2017). "It's not your imagination. More trees than ever are standing dead in Colorado forests". The Denver Post. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
- ↑ "Making the Best of Beetle Kill—with New Gear". 26 February 2014.
- ↑ "Pine beetle outbreak adds to greenhouse gas woes | CBC News".
- ↑ "Megadrought in U.S. Southwest: A Bad Omen for Forests Globally".
- Colorado State Forest Service | Annual Report on the Health of Colorado’s Forests | January 2017
- Berwyn, Bob. Aspen Colorado | AspenTimes.com News. Web. 02 Nov. 2009. <http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090410/NEWS/904109967/1058/rss>.
- Leatherman, D. A. "Mountain Pine Beetle." Colorado State University Extension. Web. 02 Nov. 2009. <http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05528.html Archived 2001-03-10 at the Wayback Machine >.
- Moscu, Jim. "How the Pine Beetle is Destroying Colorado Forests | Newsweek Environment | Newsweek.com." Newsweek - National News, World News, Health, Technology, Entertainment and more... | Newsweek.com. Web. 02 Nov. 2009. <http://www.newsweek.com/id/148297>.
- Pankratz, Howard. "Beetle-kill rate in Colorado "catastrophic" - The Denver Post." Home - The Denver Post. Web. 02 Nov. 2009. <http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7967666>.
- "Pine Beetles Kill High Elevation Lodgepole Pines of Colorado «." Dot Alpine Blog. Web. 02 Nov. 2009. <http://dotalpine.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/pine-beetle-kills-high-elevation-lodgepole-pines-of-colorado/>.
- Williams, David. "Beetle kill on the Hill; Colorado lawmakers make funding case in D.C. «." Colorado Independent. Web. 02 Nov. 2009. <http://coloradoindependent.com/31436/beetle-kill-on-the-hill-colorado-lawmakers-make-funding-case-in-dc>.