"Rocky Mountain Forests Vanishing as Planet Heats Up"

"CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Climate change could kill up to 90 percent of the forests covering the Rocky Mountains, warned  the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists today in a new study based in part on projections made by the U.S. Forest Service.

Extreme heat and drought, more and larger wildfires over a longer fire season, and beetle infestations have killed tens of millions of trees in the Rocky Mountains over the past 15 years, according to the study, “Rocky Mountain Forests at Risk.”

If climate change is allowed to continued unchecked, the scientists warn, these impacts will increase in the years ahead, reducing the ranges of iconic tree species, and fundamentally alter the Rocky Mountain forests that we know today."

Environment News Service had the story September 10, 2014.

SEE ALSO:

"Rocky Mountain Forests Are Dying, Report Finds, Blaming Climate Change" (Denver Post)