Could pine beetles actually reduce forest fire risk?
There’s no doubt that the tiny mountain pine beetle has caused massive destruction along the Pacific Coast. But that doesn’t mean that the bug has raised the forest fire risk, says a team of three researchers. In fact, in some cases, forests destroyed by the beetle may actually be less likely to burn. The idea that beetles killing off tress could actually be lowering the fire risk may sound counterintuitive. After all, dead trees are dry and should therefore be like a tinderbox primed for wildfire. University of Wisconsin forest ecologists Monica Turner and Phil Townsend have been studying beetle-infected forests near Yellowstone National Park. Along with Yellowstone Vegetation Management Specialist Roy Renkin, the researchers have been using images taken by NASA’s Landsat satellites to map the areas hardest hit by the beetle outbreak.
