Making a new leak to fix another leak

      Humans have long been controlling every aspect of nature the best that we can. This is certianly evident in the timber industry where money is on the line every time a tree is dies.  The article from The Journal of Applied Ecology for this week discusses how one rescue effort has helped to cause another problem. 
    
       The Rocky Mountian region of the U.S. and Canada is losing thousands of acres of lodgepole pine a year to the mountian pine beetle.  Lodgepole pine is an important timber resource and also food resource for animals that feed on the nutrient rich pine nuts.  Loggers are cutting as fast as they can to head off the beetle before it is too late and companies are planting young lodgepole pines as fast as they can to replace the ones that had to be removed.  Here in this solution is the problem and is causing an even bigger problem.

   Lodgepole pines do not grow in unevenage stands because the seeds do not germinate until after a hot fire(called serontanous seeds) so all the trees are the same age in stands that stretch for hundreds of miles (these stands were growing before timber was activily managed by timber companies beginning in the early 1900's so none of them have been planted by man).  So nobody knew that old trees near young trees could result in large die offs of younger trees. Old Lodgepole pines are host to a root collar beetle, the Warren Root Collar beetle.  The Mountian pine beetle attacks the tree above the ground while the other attacks roots.  The root collar beetles do not kill large trees due to defense chemicals that keep them from getting inside the root, but can kill young trees.  The young trees' roots have less protective chemicals and there for can be attacked without being able to fight off the beetles like the old trees.  Since the young trees are an easier target, the beetles move from the old tree to the young trees and kill millions of newly planted trees every year.

        The timber industry saw planting many young trees adjacent to old stands as a way to quickly offset the massive kills caused by the mountian pine beetle.  They however did not know that there was another predator lurking just a few feet away that was waiting for a such an easy target.  Not only are all the old trees still being killed by mountain pine beetle, but all the young ones are being killed by the Warren Root Collar beetle and their numbers have exploded due to the millions of young pines planted near older ones.  Trying to save the future actually may have destroyed it if a solution is not found quickly.  steps have been taken to clear land of all remaining old pines before young trees are planted so there will be less chance that beetles can get to the young trees. 

      just goes to show that before you patch a hole, make sure you arent making an even bigger one in the process.  the photo is a little hazy but this is what a mountian pine beetle looks like, rather small to cause such a big problem