[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The real reason for the pine beetle infestation is overprotection of forests from fires and logging. Before everything was blamed on global warming, the consensus of foresters was that the boreal forests were over mature. They are supposed to burn over about every 100 years — the infested areas are about 125 years old.

[caseinpoint]

“The real reason for the pine beetle infestation is overprotection of forests from fires and logging.”

I think the DDT ban has some influence here also. I remember seeing the trees in Idaho die off from beetle infestation right after the forests had to go “cold turkey” from their usual treatment with DDT.