A few years ago, Six was stunned to find sites where the mountain pine beetle was skipping right over lower - altitude stands of lodgepole pines, to focus on and
kill whitebark pine stands at higher altitudes.
Beetles gained similar strength in the Rockies during mild winters in the late»90s and early 2000s,
killing not only their usual victims but also entire hillsides of ancient
whitebark pines, which live at altitudes once too frigid to support the insects.A beautifully concise explanation of what has happened in a large portion of the West, thanks in part to climate change.