So many things wrong with this story — and on so many levels.
Bark beetles are native to the western forests, and they can, and do, attack (and eventually kill) pines. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where I use to own property, all the smart stewards of the land would immediately cut down an infected tree. They would also cut down any trees near the infected one, to prevent the spread of the bark beetle.
Guess what? It worked. Nowadays, however, the idiot environmentalists of the forest refuse to call private loggers in to cut down any infected trees. The results are predicatble: wide swaths of forest are now dying (needlessly).
And one last point from the article:
“...an insect outbreak that increases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which can increase warming...”
— Hey Einstein, haven’t you heard? Carbon dioxide doesn’t drive temperature increase; it lags behind it.
Same with me. Except I had the adjacent trees sprayed with pesticide (shudder!!). I've lost only two mature pinon pines to the beetles whereas whole areas of forest from Santa Fe south to ABQ have been devastated during the past three years.
It only works if everybody does it.
We live on 40 acres of heavily forrested ponderosas, but our property abutts the San Isabel National Forest.
They aren't doing a darn thing in the forest to eradicate the spread of pine beetles.
In fact, our state officials have admitted defeat in the fight against the beetles....too costly now, etc.
At the rate they're spreading, we won't have a single healthy tree on our property in another 10 years.
Got just one word for you - FIRE!!!
That natural process is what kills the infestations and then allows healthy trees to prosper. 80+ years of poor forest managment has turned the trees into matchsticks and the ground cover -the duff- into fuel storage.