Along the north slope of the Uinta Mountains, most of the lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) has been killed by the mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae). If you drive through the forest and look at the trees, about half of them are red or grey with dead needles, the rest—the green ones—are aspen and fir. Lodgepole is particularly susceptible to MPB attack, so if you see thousands of acres of dead trees, you can count on a beetle epidemic. The tell-tale sign, however, is found on the bark of a beetle hit tree. As the beetle bores into the bark, the tree sends pitch to the wound. The pitch, mixed with sawdust and frass, pushes back out through the hole and forms a sticky white bubble on the surface of the bark. When a tree is under attack it may have hundreds of these "pitch tubes" covering its entire circumference.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Mountain Pine Beetle
Along the north slope of the Uinta Mountains, most of the lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) has been killed by the mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae). If you drive through the forest and look at the trees, about half of them are red or grey with dead needles, the rest—the green ones—are aspen and fir. Lodgepole is particularly susceptible to MPB attack, so if you see thousands of acres of dead trees, you can count on a beetle epidemic. The tell-tale sign, however, is found on the bark of a beetle hit tree. As the beetle bores into the bark, the tree sends pitch to the wound. The pitch, mixed with sawdust and frass, pushes back out through the hole and forms a sticky white bubble on the surface of the bark. When a tree is under attack it may have hundreds of these "pitch tubes" covering its entire circumference.
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