@article{438148,
      recid = {438148},
      author = {Nikiforuk, Andrew,},
      title = {Empire of the beetle how human folly and a tiny bug are  killing North America's great forests / [electronic  resource] :},
      publisher = {David Suzuki Foundation :},
      address = {Vancouver :},
      pages = {1 online resource (230 p.) :},
      year = {2011},
      abstract = {"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 centuries.  The 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 out.  Drawing 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.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/438148},
}