This past spring break I skied in Keystone, Colorado. I was astonished to see the amount of dead pine trees that existed all across mountains in Keystone and Dillon, Colorado and even through out the drive into the mountains. Due to the invasive species, mountain pine beetles, pine trees are dying throughout the Rocky Mountains. Click on the link to see a map that shows how the pine beetle has affected the Rocky Mountains since 1996.

 

http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/barkbeetle/aboutepidemic/maps

 

After looking at the amount of dead trees, I wondered what caused the pine beetle to destroy so many pine trees. Is it because of climate change?  According to this youtube video link below, the mountain pine beetles are naturally killed off by harsh cold winters. But due to rising global temperatures and lack of cold harsh winters in areas such as Canada and Colorado, more mountain pine beetles are surviving rather than dying. In Canada especially, the mountain pine beetles will spread north towards the Boreal Forest if temperatures continue to rise. If the Boreal Forest has so many species then how will the loss of pine trees further impact the Boreal Forest ecosystem?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRSR5L5e28g

 

There will be a higher occurrence of forest fires with the amount of dead pine trees, and particularly in the mountains, dead trees can lead to less trees soaking up the atmospheric carbon dioxide and more atmospheric carbon dioxide being released. More atmospheric carbon dioxide is the last thing we need. It only causes the atmosphere to become warmer leading to more mountain pine beetles destroying more pine trees!

 

In my opinion, global warming has a major impact on the mountain pine beetles and scenic Rocky Mountain forests. But how do we stop the destruction of the pine trees? In general, for the prevention of mountain pine beetles, google websites say use more pesticide sprays and kill all the infected pine trees in sight. But with such enormous populations of trees and beetles, this is hard to follow, particularly with pesticide chemicals affecting an ecosystem. So in order to literally save the trees in the scenic Rocky Mountains and Canada, we need to find a long-term solution to reduce our carbon footprint and furthermore decrease global temperatures. Perhaps tell your friends and start a community awareness, global rising temperatures aren't just impacting humans, it’s negatively impacting the healthy pine trees we see in the Rockies and Canada. So let's all get together and look for a solution to save the pine trees.

 

The brown trees are those that have been affected by the mountain pine beetle. If you look closely, you can say the many brown and lifeless pine trees in the background. (Dillon Reservoir, CO, near where I stayed during spring break)