Germany’s climate-stressed trees face ‘catastrophe’ as bugs attack

Welzow, Germany --- Germany's forests have long been treasured by its people, so the country has reacted with alarm and dismay as a beetle infestation has turned climate-stressed woodlands into brown ecological graveyards. After two unusually hot summers in a row, vast patches of the forests mythologized by medieval fairytales, Goethe's writings and Romantic painters have turned into tinder-dry dead zones. Given the scale of the threat to the one-third of German territory covered by trees, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government will try to formulate new strategies at a "forest summit" on Wednesday. The immediate culprit has been the tiny bark beetle, which has gone on a rampage as tr...

Keep on reading: Germany’s climate-stressed trees face ‘catastrophe’ as bugs attack

from INQUIRER.net https://ift.tt/2mwCAaB