Tag Archives: mountain pine beetle

Whitebark pines -- a crucial cog in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem -- may be ailing and in danger, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not extend protections to the species, saying resources are best deployed elsewhere.

Beetle infestations have killed off most of the whitebark pines in the eastern part of Yellowstone National Park and the Absaroka Mountains, as a Natural Resources Defense Council aerial study shows significantly more damage to the pine population that previously though -- giving fuel for the pines to be listed as an Endangered Species.