Over 14 million hectares of lodgepole pine-dominated forests in British Columbia (BC), Canada, have been severely impacted by the current mountain pine beetle epidemic. Simultaneously, a Dothistroma needle blight epidemic in northwest BC has been responsible for killing thousands of hectares of pine plantations and has even resulted in the death of mature trees, which is unprecedented. Both of these globally significant forest pest epidemics have been linked to climate change. The beetle epidemic has grossly exceeded the scale of all previously recorded outbreaks, in large part due to a lack of cold winters. In this sense, the link to global warming is relatively straightforward and foreseeable. Of all climate change projections, the [...]
