William Campbell Photography

Dead whitebark pine trees in the Pioneer Mountains, Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Montana. The high altitude tress were killed by mountain pine beetles. Scientists have attributed the current pine beetle outbreak to climate change and warmer winters. The whitebark trees are an important to the high mountain ecosystem. Whitebark cones and seeds are an important food source for grizzly bears. Scientists have attributed the current outbreak of pine beetles to climate change and warmer winters. Pine beetles have killed tens of millions of acres of trees in the Rocky Mountains of North America and Canada.