Insect runs rampant; kills millions of trees in Western Canada  »

Mountain pine beetle infestation is killing trees at an alarming rate in Western Canada. Once helpful to Canada’s forests, the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, has become a hindrance due to Canada’s changing climate. The mountain pine beetle formerly aided new forest growth by getting rid of older, weaker trees and making way for new ones. In previous winters, cold temperatures kept the mountain pine beetles’ population in check, while every spring the smaller surviving population would aid our forests.  As the climate is warming on a global scale, the winters that once controlled this population are less harsh allowing the spring population of pine beetle to grow.