Posted on 07/31/2007 9:00:38 AM PDT by 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at casperstartribune.net ...
They make it sound like white pine blister rust is something new. I’ve heard about it for more than 60 years.
Nothing to do with gullible warming.
Why would whitebark pines go extinct? Don’t they make cones with seeds?
Replace the the white pine with a more blight-resistant species and replace the grizzlies with polar bears, dyed brown.
Not after they've been infected by the fungus.
These liberals like to blame everything on global warming.
or Bush.
My BS detector pegged at max int he first line of the article.
actually, polar bears turn green in warmer climates, fungus grows on the hair shafts... the Polar Bears that they displayed in Vancouver BC Canada had that problem... they turned green...
Isn't the insect infestation caused by a lack of fire?
Fine collect seed cones from those that are still healthy. The extinction scare is premature—unless every tree existing has the fungus and none are producing cones.
Liberals have a convenient theory and they do not want to be confused with the facts.
Super Volcano!
Oh for Pete's sake...
Is there anything left that isn't caused by Global WarmingTM?
The forests are in trouble because man-hating envirowackos refuse to allow loggers to keep forests healthy. They're in trouble because tree-hugging nutcases have anthropomorphized plants, creating a morality from whole cloth.
Those who worship Gaia would be just fine with the extinction of man. But, painful as the truth may be, the fact is that forests are healthier when people harvest trees and cull dead wood regularly.
So let the forests burn periodically as God intended...
anthropomorphized plants...
.
If they were sentient, they’d have screaming to be put out of their misery long ago. ;’)
Green! I guess if they don’t just die in warmer weather, as Al Gore infers, it’s some consolation that the bears turn green—the environmentalist’s color of choice.
It is fun to laugh at these global warming nuts.
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!
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