Some See Beetle Attacks on Western Forests as a Natural Event
| By Mike Collins - Jul 7th, 2009 at 9:39 am EDT |
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Categories: Environment / Conservation, Effective & Ethical Government, Animal Welfare
Categories: Environment / Conservation, Effective & Ethical Government, Animal Welfare
Maybe if we ignore climate change it will go away, along with millions of acres of pine, top soil and watershed. The bad news, the 21st century pine beetle scourge, natural or not, will have a profound effect on the water supplies of Phoenix, Vegas and LA. MC
NY Times
July 7, 2009
Some See Beetle Attacks on Western Forests as a Natural Event
By JIM ROBBINS
MISSOULA, Mont. — When Ken Salazar — then a senator from Colorado, now secretary of the interior — called the attack on millions of acres of pine forests by the bark beetle the Katrina of the West, he was expressing the common view of the explosive growth of the beetles as an unmitigated disaster.
But not everybody sees it that way. Some environmentalists and scientists support the beetles. While they acknowledge the severity of the problems the beetles are causing, they argue that the insects, which kill only mature trees larger than five inches in diameter, are a natural phenomenon, like forest fires, and play a vital ecological role.
Continued:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/science/earth/07beetles.html?ref=science
NY Times
July 7, 2009
Some See Beetle Attacks on Western Forests as a Natural Event
By JIM ROBBINS
MISSOULA, Mont. — When Ken Salazar — then a senator from Colorado, now secretary of the interior — called the attack on millions of acres of pine forests by the bark beetle the Katrina of the West, he was expressing the common view of the explosive growth of the beetles as an unmitigated disaster.
But not everybody sees it that way. Some environmentalists and scientists support the beetles. While they acknowledge the severity of the problems the beetles are causing, they argue that the insects, which kill only mature trees larger than five inches in diameter, are a natural phenomenon, like forest fires, and play a vital ecological role.
Continued:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/science/earth/07beetles.html?ref=science
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