“Epidemic infestations” of bark beetles have killed an estimated 22 million trees in the Golden State so far, and it could get worse.
Burned trees are seen near Cobb, California on Sept. 14.
Noah Berger / Reuters
On Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency over "epidemic infestations" of bark beetles.
The beetles kill the trees, which makes everything from erosion to wildfires worse. Californians even face "safety risks" from falling trees, the governor's office warned.
In a letter to the Department of Agriculture, Brown adds that the state is "facing the worst epidemic of tree mortality in modern history."
Spruce bark beetles are seen in 2009 in Canada.
Rick Bowmer / AP
The insect is native to the western U.S. and feeds on various kinds of trees. Under normal conditions — i.e. when there is plenty of water — the beetles play a natural role in renewing the forest, with tree sap protecting trees from excessive die-offs.
"Essentially, that's their flu shot against the bark beetles," Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told BuzzFeed News.
But in recent years, rising temperatures and prolonged drought have driven the water table down, which has hurt the ability of trees to make sap.
"The sap tap gets turned off," Patzert said. "So then the bark beetles start invading."
Over time, the result is vast swaths of dying trees and conditions that Patzert described as "a bark beetle piñata."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1MnvapM
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