Beetle Kill Blue Stain Pine | Sustainable Lumber Company

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This page shows how beautiful blue stain pine can be. The stain is from melanin in the fungal symbionts of the mountain pine beetle. If I didn’t already live in a house made of beetle kill I would build another one!

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Sometime in August, I am going to visit Claire and Bill to see and talk about their amazing art inspired by mountain pine beetles. This should be a magnificent road trip all the way to Wells, British Columbia (wherever that is). I’ll be stopping in Calgary to drop off a bunch of slides of beetle mites for some colleagues and checking out beetle fungal symbionts all along the way. It’ll be the Royal Canadian Symbiosis Tour! I am packing the Mini Cooper full of fishing gear and Scandinavian metal CDs for the trip. I’ll be sending posts. 

Diana Six (right) and Jolanda Roux (left) peruse a plantation of exotic trees affected by exotic pests in South Africa. Look out little beetles, the Blues Sisters are here!

Diana Six (right) and Jolanda Roux (left) peruse a plantation of exotic trees affected by exotic pests in South Africa. Look out little beetles, the Blues Sisters are here!

Help with #pinebeetle in my own backyard! From left to right-researchers: Emory (undergrad), Ryan (grad student), Travis (undergrad), Paul (partner and main squeeze), and Caleb (undergrad). You guys rock! The infested wood went back to the lab to support various research projects. It’ll come back to me for firewood by fall.

Help with #pinebeetle in my own backyard! From left to right-researchers: Emory (undergrad), Ryan (grad student), Travis (undergrad), Paul (partner and main squeeze), and Caleb (undergrad). You guys rock! The infested wood went back to the lab to support various research projects. It’ll come back to me for firewood by fall.

treefight: Jesse captures the fiery end of another ancient tree, high in the Gros Ventre.

treefight:

Jesse captures the fiery end of another ancient tree, high in the Gros Ventre.

Mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pines along one of my favorite rivers to fish. This area got hit by a cold snap in October 2009 that killed many of the beetles. For a couple of years they didn’t do much. But now they’re back and going gangbusters.  I made a few casts with a nymph I tied a couple of days ago but no takes today.

Mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pines along one of my favorite rivers to fish. This area got hit by a cold snap in October 2009 that killed many of the beetles. For a couple of years they didn’t do much. But now they’re back and going gangbusters.  I made a few casts with a nymph I tied a couple of days ago but no takes today.

How’s this for tree CSI? Who killed this tree? Good question. And one I am trying to answer with a few walks in the woods this coming week. Two bark beetles have colonized this tree, mountain pine beetle and western pine beetle. The unstained area containing squiggly galleries (tunnels) is where western pine beetle was able to grab space. The blue-ish backwards J-shape is where mountain pine beetle grabbed space. Why the different colors? Back up a bit in this blog and you’ll find entries on bluestain fungi-the fungal partners of mountain pine beetle create a wonderful blue hue in beetle-killed trees due to melanin. The fungi with western pine beetle don’t have melanin and don’t alter the woods appearance.   So who killed this tree? That depends who got there first. According to ‘the book,’ mountain pine beetles kill trees and western pine beetles follow. One big problem-western pine beetles fly and attack trees in May while mountain pine beetles fly and kill trees from late June to Late August. What I am seeing in ponderosa pines around western Montana means one of two things….I am going to go look at more trees tomorrow before I share which I think is occurring.

How’s this for tree CSI? Who killed this tree? Good question. And one I am trying to answer with a few walks in the woods this coming week. Two bark beetles have colonized this tree, mountain pine beetle and western pine beetle. The unstained area containing squiggly galleries (tunnels) is where western pine beetle was able to grab space. The blue-ish backwards J-shape is where mountain pine beetle grabbed space. Why the different colors? Back up a bit in this blog and you’ll find entries on bluestain fungi-the fungal partners of mountain pine beetle create a wonderful blue hue in beetle-killed trees due to melanin. The fungi with western pine beetle don’t have melanin and don’t alter the woods appearance.  

So who killed this tree? That depends who got there first. According to ‘the book,’ mountain pine beetles kill trees and western pine beetles follow. One big problem-western pine beetles fly and attack trees in May while mountain pine beetles fly and kill trees from late June to Late August. What I am seeing in ponderosa pines around western Montana means one of two things….I am going to go look at more trees tomorrow before I share which I think is occurring.

I came across this wonderful old, old ponderosa pine today. Really big-and in a grove of mostly young regeneration resulting from intensive logging in the past-probably 60-80 years ago. I don’t know how this one escaped, but I found it interesting that  someone loves this tree enough to hike out here and tack a pheromone packet onto its trunk. Unfortunately, most beetle activity in the area is western pine beetle, not mountain pine beetle. The pheromone pack only works on mountain pine beetle and in any case they very seldom go for old growth. Keep your fingers crossed for this wonderful tree.

I came across this wonderful old, old ponderosa pine today. Really big-and in a grove of mostly young regeneration resulting from intensive logging in the past-probably 60-80 years ago. I don’t know how this one escaped, but I found it interesting that  someone loves this tree enough to hike out here and tack a pheromone packet onto its trunk. Unfortunately, most beetle activity in the area is western pine beetle, not mountain pine beetle. The pheromone pack only works on mountain pine beetle and in any case they very seldom go for old growth. Keep your fingers crossed for this wonderful tree.

It’s the beginning of bark beetle hunting season Stalked and caught 107 beetle-killed trees in less than an hour.  

It’s the beginning of bark beetle hunting season

Stalked and caught 107 beetle-killed trees in less than an hour.  

Who killed this tree? No need to remove the bark to see which bark beetle caused the demise of this ponderosa pine. Let the woodpeckers tell you. The pattern of bark removal on this tree tells me it was killed by western pine beetle.  This beetle completes development inside the bark. The woodpeckers flake off only enough bark to get to the larvae. In contrast, mountain pine beetle develops under the bark. If this tree had been killed by mountain pine beetle, the woodpeckers would have had to work much harder, and completely remove the bark to feed.  In my lab, we call this Tree CSI. Even years after a tree is killed, a lot that can be learned about what happened throughout its life including the climate it experienced, what killed it, and what happened to it in the period after death. You just need to know how to read the clues!

Who killed this tree?

No need to remove the bark to see which bark beetle caused the demise of this ponderosa pine. Let the woodpeckers tell you. The pattern of bark removal on this tree tells me it was killed by western pine beetle.  This beetle completes development inside the bark. The woodpeckers flake off only enough bark to get to the larvae. In contrast, mountain pine beetle develops under the bark. If this tree had been killed by mountain pine beetle, the woodpeckers would have had to work much harder, and completely remove the bark to feed.  In my lab, we call this Tree CSI. Even years after a tree is killed, a lot that can be learned about what happened throughout its life including the climate it experienced, what killed it, and what happened to it in the period after death. You just need to know how to read the clues!