Southern Pine Beetle Now Northern Problem - In New York, New Jersey, Southern New England

[hatrack]

ROCKY POINT, N.Y. (AP) — The southern pine beetle, which for generations has attacked forests throughout the southeastern United States, is methodically making its way into the Northeast, destroying thousands of trees in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere.

The beetle, which resembles a chocolate sprinkle, is viewed as a threat to all pine species, including pitch pine, the predominant tree found in the 100,000-acre environmentally sensitive Long Island Pine Barrens region. It was first discovered in New York last October, about a decade after it appeared in New Jersey, officials said. "Whenever you have a new pest enter an area where it's never been, it has the potential for massive outbreaks," said John Wernet, a forester with New York's Department of Environmental Conservation.

The insect also has been found recently in Connecticut, and U.S. Forest Service entomologist Kevin Dodds says traps in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are detecting its presence there. The reasons for its expansion northward have not been determined, but some say a rich supply of pine trees amid rising temperatures is one possibility. "The only thing that would allow them to move up the coast was the climate," said Lisa Filippi, a biology professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead. "A very slight change in climate can cause a huge change in the life cycle of insects."

Robert Marsh, a natural resource supervisor at the New York DEC, wrote in a recent Long Island Pine Barrens Society newsletter that the beetle feeds under the tree's bark, eventually killing it. Female beetles release a pheromone that leaves a trail for other beetles to follow, causing destruction throughout a forest.

EDIT

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/51ffb1f1a7684e6b9052960349763f05/destructive-southern-pine-beetle-appears-northeast-states

[cilla4progress]

1. It drives me crazy when scientists say things like:

"The reasons for its expansion northward have not been determined, but some say a rich supply of pine trees amid rising temperatures is one possibility."

Why do they mince words on climate change? I see this so often. Maybe if they had been more definitive sooner, instead of politically correct, or cautious, we could have done something...in time.

Of course, I know they aren't listenened to, but good god, people have to start making a stand, calling it as they see it. There are some good models out there - I would like to see this change.

[independentpiney]

2. The scientists quoted are unequivocal

It's the pseudo-journalist or the editors who put in the part you quoted. But I wouldn't doubt there may be some scientists working for some state agencies and federal regional offices who have to parse their words very carefully for career reasons.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. You may be interested in this US Forest Service page

http://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/insect-disturbance/bark-beetles

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Bark Beetles and Climate Change in the United States[/font]

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[font size=3]Bark beetles that infest and reproduce in live trees are capable of causing landscape-wide tree mortality. In the United States (US), species in the genera Dendroctonus and Ips are the primary culprits. Between 1997 and 2010 more than 5 million hectares were affected by bark beetles in the western US, most notably mountain pine beetle (D. ponderosae), spruce beetle (D. rufipennis), and piñon ips (I. confusus)(1), and the amount of carbon (C) in trees killed by these insects exceeds that of C in trees killed by fire (2). In the southeast and northeast US, southern pine beetle (D. frontalis) has affected more than 14,000 hectares since 2008, particularly in New Jersey and Mississippi. Prior to the activity during the late 2000s, expanding infestations of southern pine beetle had not been detected in the southeast or northeast since 2002 (3). It is clear that bark beetle outbreaks significantly influence forest ecosystem dynamics and carbon cycles, and research suggests warming summer and winter temperatures are major drivers of beetle population outbreaks across the US, and apparent range expansion in some species (4, 5, 6). Mountain pine beetle, spruce beetle and southern pine beetle are examples of bark beetles with the capacity for irruptive population growth. Populations exist at low levels for many years until triggered by factors such as drought (7, 8, 9), windfall (10), and pathogens that stress trees (11). Other species of bark beetles such as pinyon ips can be triggered by similar conditions, although their population dynamics are more directly tied to the condition of the host tree (12). Once a trigger occurs, population growth depends on the scale of the trigger, continued favorable conditions including suitable host trees throughout the landscape (13), and temperatures that favor winter beetle survival (14, 15) and successful tree attacks in the summer (16).

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