Earth  ID: 10634

Wildfire and Pine Beetles

Released on September 7, 2010
Mountain pine beetles are native to Western forests, but in recent years their numbers have skyrocketed. As they damage more trees and kill whole regions of forest, some worry that the dead forest left behind has become a tinderbox ready to burn. But do pine beetles really increase fire risk?Using Landsat satellite data, University of Wisconsin forest ecologist Phil Townsend and his team are discovering that pine beetle damage appears not to have a significant impact in the risk of large fires. In fact, it might even reduce fire risk in some instances.
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In this short video, Townsend and his team hit the ground to study the issue in the forest near Yellowstone National Park. While pine beetles may not significantly impact fire risk, Townsend believes that climate change may be leading to an increase in both pine beetle numbers and the risk of fire.

For complete transcript, click here.

Credits

Jennifer A. Shoemaker (UMBC): Video Editor
Rich Melnick (HTSI): Video Editor
Phil Townsend (University of Wisconsin): Interviewee
Jefferson Beck (UMBC): Narrator
Jennifer A. Shoemaker (UMBC): Producer
Phil Townsend (University of Wisconsin): Scientist
George Potter (Freelance): Videographer
Jennifer A. Shoemaker (UMBC): Writer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10634

Mission:
Landsat

Data Used:
Landsat
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Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
DLESE >> Biology
SVS >> Climate
DLESE >> Ecology
SVS >> Fire Management
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Human geography
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Climate Indicators >> Fire Weather Indices
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Animal Taxonomy >> Insects
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Ecological Dynamics >> Fire Characteristics
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Biosphere >> Ecological Dynamics >> Fire Occurrence
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Human Dimensions >> Natural Hazards >> Fires
DLESE >> Narrated
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0