Recipe for Saving Western Pine Forests: Got Herbs?

Posted by EcoFriendly

Mar 15

As mountain pine beetles ravage pine forests across the West, leaving in their wake stands of devastated trees bearing the telltale signs of “pitch tubes” and brown or rusty orange needles, botanists are re-discovering a remedy that may rescue these trees.

Mountain pine beetle infestation is the direct result of climate change, according to one author, who explains that – in Colorado, as elsewhere across the West – winter temperatures no longer drop low enough to kill the beetles or their eggs. As an example, she cites daytime Denver temperatures on February 6 as hovering in the mid-60s, with February averages in …