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The number of Colorado lodgepole pines killed by bark beetles jumped nearly fivefold in 2006 as the explosive, decadelong bug epidemic continues to gain steam. About 4.8 million lodgepoles were killed this year, up from roughly 1 million trees last year, according to Bob Cain, an entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Golden. The lodgepole acreage under attack by mountain pine beetles jumped about 50 percent this year to 644,840 acres, up from 430,526 acres last year. The new numbers, which are considered preliminary, come from aerial tree-damage surveys conducted this summer. "We had a significant increase in both...

Legislation designed to control and eradicate tamarisk was signed into law by President Bush Wednesday night, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., announced Thursday... creating funding for a large-scale effort to control tamarisk, also known as salt cedar... "The tamarisk is causing severe problems throughout Colorado and the West," said Allard. "The President's signing of this legislation marks a major milestone in the ongoing effort by Congress and this administration to provide critical resources for the removal of this destructive and invasive species." The tamarisk has invaded the margins of streams, lakes and wetlands throughout the Western United States. An individual...

Future drought is projected to occur under warmer temperature conditions as climate change progresses, referred to here as global-change-type drought, yet quantitative assessments of the triggers and potential extent of drought-induced vegetation die-off remain pivotal uncertainties in assessing climate-change impacts. Of particular concern is regional-scale mortality of overstory trees, which rapidly alters ecosystem type, associated ecosystem properties, and land surface conditions for decades. Here, we quantify regional-scale vegetation die-off across southwestern North American woodlands in 2002-2003 in response to drought and associated bark beetle infestations. At an intensively studied site within the region, we quantified that after 15 months of...

The high heat that accompanied the recent drought was the underlying cause of death for millions of pinyon pines throughout the Southwest, according to new research. The resulting landscape change will affect the ecosystem for decades. Hotter temperatures coupled with drought are the type of event predicted by global climate change models. The new finding suggests big, fast changes in ecosystems may result from global climate change. "We documented a massive forest die-off -- and it's a concern because it's the type of thing we can expect more of with global warming," said research team leader David D. Breshears, a...

A smuggler who filled his trousers with rare snakes was caught when he landed at Prague airport because customs officers spotted them wriggling.The man had pulled his trousers tight tying them with string and tucked the legs into his socks after hiding the snakes inside. But his appearance alerted customs officers who arrested the man when he landed in the Czech capital after a flight from Africa. The 23-year-old man was also found to have scorpions and beetles in his luggage, local media reported.

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have shared a common political vision for most of their careers. Now each will share something else - a slime-mold beetle named in his honor...

HONG KONG -- An upscale Hong Kong grocery store is being prosecuted after a customer allegedly discovered 575 beetles in a jar of cereal he bought, officials and media reports said yesterday. The customer, lawyer Philip Dykes, said the breakfast cereal was "too organic for my liking," according to the South China Morning Post. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has charged the Great grocer store with sale of "food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser," said Emily Mak, a department spokeswoman. The charge carries a maximum fine of 10,000 Hong Kong dollars, $1,589 Cdn,...

Apaches' bitter harvest Photos by Aaron J. Latham / Arizona Daily StarBIA forester Frederick von Bonin inspects timber. When emergency harvest is over, the Apache mainstay will be severely curbed for a century. This summer's Rodeo-Chediski fire, largest in Arizona's history, burned 276,507 acres of Apache land, 462,606 acres in all. Fresh snow shows through the stands of scorched forest almost as far as the eye can see on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The tribe is harvesting a century's worth of timber in six months. Burned trees' loss transcends the economicBy Tom BealARIZONA DAILY STAR CIBECUE - The forests...

The merger of the UHF Fox station with Oregon's oldest television station, KPTV, is a pure delight. The reason is Brit, Tony, Freddie (the Beetle) and friends. As the PGA commercials say, "These guys are good."While the local morning news programs and the 10 P.M. news are staffed by the same tired flock of liberal lightweights that infest all the other local newsrooms in Portland broadcasting, the national news feed comes from actual journalists! (snip)For full article, click here!