North America's Tree Dilemma

If you happen to live in an area of North America that has wide ranges of standing lodgepole pines, you know what the mountain pine beetle is. Its effects are starkly visible all throughout natural regions with ever-growing swaths of reddish-orange trees - trees already showing the fiery signs of death.

The mountain pine beetle dilemma has been labeled a symptom of climate change when overly warm winters have allowed the beetle to thrive and populate. Usually long-sustained winters and deep freezes help control the numbers, but those types of cold seasons have been lacking enough to allow the population explosion to take place. Other factors believed to be contributing to the problem are suppression of forest fires (allowing the majority of standing pines across America to mature, which are more susceptible to beetle infestation), and weakened immune systems due to long periods of drought.

The problem is especially widespread throughout British Columbia, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. More than 2 million acres have been affected in Colorado, and experts expect the state to lose its entire standing of lodgepole pines, approximately 5 million acres (7,812 square miles), in three to five years. British Columbia has lost more than 33 million acres (51,562 square miles).

One of the control methods is using fire by means of an above-ground air curtain burner. Dead trees are burned in a large portable furnace, which is a safer, more cost-effective way of disposing of the trees and killing the living infestation within those trees.

Burning is a slow process, however, that may not be able to keep up with the beetles’ rapid spread. One possible solution may come from a group of fourth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade children out of Fort Collins, Colorado. As part of a school competition the students developed an idea around genetically modifying the beetles’ pheromone capabilities - the chemical the beetles emit to communicate a signal that attracts or repels other beetles, depending on the availability of food source from the pine.

The schoolchildren’s plan is to switch one pheromone, the one that attracts, with the other, the one that repels. Releasing only a few into the wild will be sufficient as the breeding takes hold and the genetically modified insects influence the newer population. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has become involved in the idea, and the Fort Collins schoolchildren headed to the FIRST world competition in Atlanta, Georgia to further promote their mission.

But it may be too late for the destruction of so many trees. Overall tree die-off has more than doubled in the past few decades. Researchers from the US Geological Survey, USDA Forest Service, University of Washington, Northern Arizona University, Oregon State University, University of Colorado in Boulder, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of British Columbia, collaborated on researching the cause of the increased die-off. The group ruled out factors such as air pollution and internal forest dynamics, and found that climate change is the most likely culprit because the trees’ mortality rate correlated with increased temperatures.

The U.S. Geological Survey says that if climate change is ultimately determined to be the primary cause, then, as global temperatures increase, so will the mortality rate.

It’s interesting to note that as global changes such as these become more apparent, we are reminded of the Hopi Prophecy, "The Age of Purification." During the period known as the third "world shaking," Hopi Elders spoke of the time when trees will die, man builds "a house in the sky," cold places become hot and hot places become cold, land sinks into the ocean and other land will rise, and the "Blue Star Kachina" will appear. Only by undergoing this process of purification, they say, can we return to the "one-hearted" path - one that is in balance and harmony with the universe.

Linda Sue Anderson, founder of Holistic Future, has studied naturopathy, herbalism, and acupressure. She has a background in greenhouse management, growing medicinal herbs and other organic produce.

More Holistic Future articles and resources can be found here: HolisticFuture.com

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