Graduate Project
 

The Mountain Pine Beetle, Climate Change and Sustainable Forestry in the Northern Rocky Mountain

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/2514nt590

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  • Mountain pine beetles (MPB) have killed millions of acres of forest throughout the Rocky Mountain ecoregion in the United States and Canada and climate change may be intensifying outbreaks. Climate change can change forest ecosystems and dynamics by increasing drought conditions and intensifying heat waves. Due to changing climate conditions, pine trees over larger spatial scales in forests that don’t typically have large MPB outbreaks have become water-stressed and more susceptible to MPB attack. Mountain pine beetles prefer weak, old, large-diameter, or water-stressed trees as hosts because weakened or stressed pine trees are less likely to mount an effective defense response to MPB attacks. As more trees become infested with MPB, they reproduce at greater rates and grow their populations. In addition to climate change, forest management techniques that favor old-growth forests and fire suppression have led to a large number of MPB-preferred host species. Climate change also changes temperature patterns, especially in the winter and early spring months. Winter and spring temperatures are averaging higher than in previous decades, which has allowed MPB to move into new forested territory further north, expand their range, and reduce the number of MPB die-offs. This spatial increase in the MPB range has presented environmental, social, and economic burdens on communities that rely upon timber for economic and social prosperity. British Columbia, Canada’s timber industry, has been hard hit by outbreaks of MPB as their range has expanded north, causing a reduction in forest health, productivity, and sustainability. This paper details why mountain pine beetle outbreaks occur and how foresters, timber companies, and First People Nations in the Northern Rocky Mountain ecoregion can have sustainable forests during and after MPB outbreaks. Management recommendations, as well as future research needs, are also provided.
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