Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests

Andrew Nikiforuk

Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation, 2011 - Science - 230 pages

Beginning in the late 1980s, a series of improbable bark beetle outbreaks unsettled iconic forests and communities across western North America. An insect the size of a rice kernel eventually killed more than 30 billion pine and spruce trees from Alaska to New Mexico. Often appearing in masses larger than schools of killer whales, the beetles engineered one of the world's greatest forest die-offs since the deforestation of Europe by peasants between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.
The beetle didn't act alone. Misguided science, out-of-control logging, bad public policy, and a hundred years of fire suppression created a volatile geography that released the world's oldest forest manager from all natural constraints. Like most human empires, the beetles exploded wildly and then crashed, leaving in their wake grieving landowners, humbled scientists, hungry animals, and altered watersheds. Although climate change triggered this complex event, human arrogance assuredly set the table. With little warning, an ancient insect pointedly exposed the frailty of seemingly stable manmade landscapes.
Drawing on first-hand accounts from entomologists, botanists, foresters, and rural residents, award-winning journalist Andrew Nikiforuk, investigates this unprecedented beetle plague, its startling implications, and the lessons it holds.

What people are saying

Review: Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests

User Review  - Jerry Haigh - Goodreads

Much more information about beetles than I had ever realized. Human folly and greed and their failed attempts to deal with natural cycles. A thoroughly researched account that will fascinate students of natural history.

Review: Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests

User Review  - Sarah - Goodreads

Have always wondered about the pine beetles and folks always ask me since I'm an entomologist. The book was a bit dry and repetitive, but an interesting exploration of the underlying dangers to ...

About the author

Andrew Nikiforuk's work as a journalist – for such magazines as "Saturday Night," "Maclean's," "Canadian Business," "Report on Business Magazine," "Georgia Straight," and "Equinox" – has earned him four National Magazine Awards, the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, and top honors from the Association of Canadian Journalists. His best-selling book "School's Out: The Catastrophe in Public Education and What Parents Can Do About It" was shortlisted for the Gordon Montador Award for writing on issues of key social interest. He lives with his wife and three sons in Calgary.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests
• Author: Andrew Nikiforuk
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation, 2011
• ISBN: 1553658949, 9781553658948
• Length: 230 pages
• Subjects: Science / Life Sciences / General; TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Agriculture / Forestry