[APWG] NEWS: Some See Beetle Attacks on Western Forests as a Natural Event
Olivia Kwong
plant at plantconservation.org
Fri Jul 10 09:34:15 CDT 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/science/earth/07beetles.html?ref=science
Some See Beetle Attacks on Western Forests as a Natural Event
By JIM ROBBINS
Published: July 6, 2009
MISSOULA, Mont. -- When Ken Salazar -- then a senator from Colorado, now
secretary of the interior -- called the attack on millions of acres of
pine forests by the bark beetle the Katrina of the West, he was expressing
the common view of the explosive growth of the beetles as an unmitigated
disaster.
But not everybody sees it that way. Some environmentalists and scientists
support the beetles. While they acknowledge the severity of the problems
the beetles are causing, they argue that the insects, which kill only
mature trees larger than five inches in diameter, are a natural
phenomenon, like forest fires, and play a vital ecological role.
See the link above for the full article text.
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