Bibliograph

Type

Label

Empire of the beetle, how human folly and a tiny bug are killing North America's great forests, Andrew Nikiforuk

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-218) and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Empire of the beetle

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

727455341

Responsibility statement

Andrew Nikiforuk

Sub title

how human folly and a tiny bug are killing North America's great forests

Summary

"Beginning in the late 1980s, a series of improbable bark beetle outbreaks unsettled iconic forests and communities across western North America. An insect the size of a rice kernel eventually killed more than 30 billion pine and spruce trees from Alaska to New Mexico. Often appearing in masses larger than schools of killer whales, the beetles engineered one of the world's greatest forest die-offs since the deforestation of Europe by peasants between the eleventh and thirteenth centuriesThe beetle didn't act alone. Misguided science, out-of-control logging, bad public policy, and a hundred years of fire suppression created a volatile geography that released the world's oldest forest manager from all natural constraints. Like most human empires, the beetles exploded wildly and then crashed, leaving in their wake grieving landowners, humbled scientists, hungry animals, and altered watersheds. Although climate change triggered this complex event, human arrogance assuredly set the table. With little warning, an ancient insect pointedly exposed the frailty of seemingly stable manmade landscapes. And despite the billions of public dollars spent on control efforts, the beetles burn away like a fire that can't be put outDrawing on first-hand accounts from entomologists, botanists, foresters, and rural residents, award-winning journalist Andrew Nikiforuk investigates this unprecedented beetle plague, its startling implications, and the lessons it holds."--Pub. desc

Table Of Contents

The Alaska storm -- The beetle, the bus, and the carbon castle -- The lodgepole tsunami -- The war against the insect enemy -- The wake of the beetle -- The ghost forest -- The song of the beetle -- The sheath-winged cosmos -- The two Dianas -- The parable of the worm

Classification