Global Warming Intensifies Forest Ecosystem Decline

Accelerating Global Warming generates disturbances that provide portals for fire-prone invasive species. Insects and disease, augmented by droughts and higher temperatures, will intensify decline of ecosystem resilience. Increased winter temperatures enhanced survival of bark beetles and produced incredible beetle populations that killed vast conifer landscapes. As a response to wildfire and beetle-kill, salvage logging has proven to hemorrhage carbon from the site, squander tax money, and render these areas ecologically injured. Natural fire use and prescribed fire remain the only inexpensive and viable responses to preserve wildlands’ ecological services.