| In the past decade, bark beetle outbreaks have killed trees across millions of hectares of forests in western North America. These outbreaks have had significant ecological and social implications and created forest disturbances on a scale that pose unprecedented challenges to public institutions and policy-makers. Drawing on over 140 interviews with entomologists, public agency representatives, climate scientists, ecologists, foresters, academics, and policy-makers, this research focuses on two case studies and analyzes what caused the outbreaks and how public institutions have responded. It also questions whether climate change has played a role in the outbreaks and to what extent response efforts have addressed the long-term need to put forth climate change adaptation measures. These outbreaks provide an opportunity to question whether current laws governing forest management are adequate to address complex ecological processes and also serve to initiate an evaluation of institutional capacities to respond to the increasing ecological changes we can expect due to climate change. |
