Recent sightings of a destructive tree-eating beetle in northeast pine forests have been alarming. And a new study from Columbia University has confirmed what ecologists had feared all along: they’re here to stay.
Pine barrens occur throughout the northeastern U.S. from New Jersey to Maine. They are plant communities that occur on dry, acidic, infertile soils dominated by grasses, forbs, low shrubs, and small to medium-sized pines. The Pine Bush Preserve in Albany, New York is one of the larger inland pine barrens in the country.
