Of beetles and the brevity of human life

Last updated on: July 27, 2019 at 1:36 pm by Dan Peterson

Of beetles and the brevity of human life 2019-07-27T13:36:22-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Another view of Lake Louise, with a glimpse of the region’s vast, dense forests.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

We were rather depressed the other day to see the state of the forests in Glacier National Park, just south of the Canadian border.

Most of the trees on one side of Lake McDonald, for example, were dead. A huge forest fire engulfed them in August of 2018.

Moreover, something called blister rust, a non-native fungus, has heavily impacted the whitebark pine forests there. Within the park and in the surrounding areas, thirty percent of the whitebark pine trees have died and more than seventy percent of the remaining trees are currently infected. From 1930 to 1970, there were efforts to stop the spread of blister rust, but they failed, and it seems that the fungus will continue to kill the region’s whitebark pines into the indefinite future. This will have a negative impact on large sectors of the food chain, not merely on the aesthetic sensibilities of tourists. Red squirrels, a local species of nutcracker, and the area’s black bears all favor whitebark pine nuts and, more and more, those will be in short supply.

Since roughly 2005, too, massive infestations of mountain pine beetles have killed millions of acres of forest in the western portions of North America, from New Mexico to British Columbia. We’ve seen (and I’ve commented upon) their grievous impact in southern Utah. It has been suggested that the spread of these pine beetles is one consequence of global warming: Warmer winters allow the beetles to expand their range northward.

We were happy to see no major damage to the forests in Banff National Park or to the southern portion of Jasper National Park. At just about the place where the Athabasca Glacier sits to the west of the main road, though, the trees began to turn a rust color, brownish red, and we knew that things were bad. (I posted a photo the other day of tiny Spirit Island, in Lake Maligne. The trees on it are now mostly dead.) And even most of those that remain green right now are, I’m informed, already infected. Moreover, from what we were told, the pine beetle is moving downward, from north to south, so southern Jasper and Banff are clearly in its sights.

The authorities are evidently making no effort to stop the beetle’s spread. Their reasoning is clear, and I can’t really fault it: Such infestations and fires are part of the normal life cycle of a forest, so humans shouldn’t interfere. In fact, the forests in Jasper, one guide told us, are past their prime and need a thinning out. They’re now so dense that animals and other plants have a difficult time in their shade, and even the trees themselves have a problem reproducing. The current population of trees — around Maligne Lake, mostly lodgepole pines because a major fire wiped out the earlier dominant community of Douglas firs — is aging.

All well and good. I get it. But individual human lives are so very short that these climate and ecological cycles mean that we who are alive today will never see Glacier and Jasper reforested, looking the way we once knew it. And, of course, compared to climate cycles — let alone to geological epochs — our lives are like those of fireflies. Sometimes, mortality hurts.

Posted from Canmore, Alberta, Canada

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 27, 2019

"Religion Creates Community"

Next Post

July 27, 2019 A note on doing "the works of Abraham"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Jesus laid in after He was born?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A throne A bed A manger A basket