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What is killing the West’s notoriously resilient bristlecone pines?

Once thought to be immune to the devastation happening to other forests, bristlecone pines now appear to be in danger from beetle attack.

(Otto De Groff) Bristlecone pines in Utah’s Johns Valley north of Bryce Canyon National Park, like this one photographed May 26, 2022, are beginning to die from bark beetle attacks. A new study by the U.S. Forest Service has documented the first known instances of beetle-induced mortality among Great Basin bristlecones, the Earth’s most long-lived organism.