Trees in trouble

Star-Tribune ^ | July 31, 2007 | BRODIE FARQUHAR

[george76]

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK -- A history of fire suppression, an invasive fungal plague, and rampant insect infestation fueled by global warming add up to likely extinction for the whitebark pine and serious trouble for the grizzly bear and other species that depend on it, some scientists say.

That sets the stage for problem No. 2: white pine blister rust, an exotic species native to Eurasia and inadvertently introduced to western North America in 1910 near Vancouver, British Columbia...

As the fungal disease spreads south and east, it leaves behind “ghost” forests, Tomback said -- stands of dead whitebark pine and mortality rates of 90 percent or higher. Blister rust has already spread to southern California, east through Idaho and Montana, south to Colorado and Nevada.

It is already present in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, Tomback said. A recent inventory says 25 percent of whitebark pines in the Yellowstone ecosystem have rust.

If blister rust can be regarded as a steadily, if slow-moving, disaster for whitebark pine, the relatively dramatic and sudden attack of mountain pine beetles can be regarded as a biological firestorm...

[Minnesoootan]

Griz eat pine trees? huh,whoda thunk it....

[Clara Lou]

millions dormant in the ground just waiting for a fire
I forgot about those.

[rottndog]

You said it....Environmentalists are bad for the environment.

[gracesdad]

“Not only are there seed cones available from non-infected areas but I would also assume there are millions dormant in the ground just waiting for a fire or clear cut so they can germinate....pretty tuff to extinct a frickin plant!”

Guess you’ve never heard of the American chestnut? It was virtually obliterated by a fungus.

[sionnsar]

actually, polar bears turn green in warmer climates

Protective coloration, blend in with the forests instead of the snow? *\;-)

[sionnsar]

it’s some consolation that the bears turn green—the environmentalist’s color of choice.

As well as the followers of Mohammed.

[SunkenCiv]

You'd think they're destroying the forests on purpose. They probably suspect all the trees of being members of the John Birch Society.

[george76]

LOL

They probably suspect all the trees of being members of the John Birch Society.

[Ed Condon]

Don’t forget Dutch elm disease.

[dfwgator]

Trees in trouble

"The oaks are just too greedy..."

[Exton1]

What is left out is that these problems are ALL the cause of medaling by the Environmental kook groups. Because they would not allow timbering, we had the fire. Because they would not allow the harvesting of fire dead trees, we have the bugs. Funny how the meddlers are never blamed.

[gracesdad]

“Don’t forget Dutch elm disease.”

That too. And now Eastern hemlocks are being wiped out in large swaths by an insect.

I would love to have seen the mountains when thy were covered by blooming chestnuts.

[xcamel]

FReepmail me to get on or off

Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown

New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH

Ping me if you find one I've missed.

---

kinda...sorta...naaaaahhhh

[xcamel]

Now they’re all covered with bloomin fruitcakes...

[EBH]

I believe they need fire to germinate.

[GSWarrior]

The national park service is responsible for virtually all of the problems in Yellowstone park...primarily due to overgrazing by an artifically pumped up elk population....something I don’t think the park service has never officially claimed responsibility for.

[HKMk23]

Aww, no worries.

By the end if this decade, the Gorbats will be shrieking about the coming Ice Age, which will sort this all out. Beetles and fungus will both get subsumed by the advancing freeze, while the trees will seed out and lie dormant until the ice recedes again.

OR

We could pull out those 20-sided dice and make our “saving throw” hoping for “00”: Divine Intervention.

[HKMk23]

They probably suspect all the trees of being members of the John Birch Society.

Actually the trees are mebers of a splinter group headquartered in Aspen, CO...

[Sawdring]

Why does everything bad come from Eurasia? Purple Loosestrife, Eurasian Water Milfoil, Those flying carp working their way up the Mississippi, the Asian Beetle etc. Is there anything that is invasive that we can give back? Maybe ruin their fields with the hated North American Canadian Thistle, we could choke Eurasia’s rivers with the Northern Pike and infest their houses with Boxelder Bugs. In my estimation, it is time for a little payback.

[uglybiker]

...replace the grizzlies with polar bears, dyed brown.,p>Better not.

Polar bears are just plain ornery.