{"id":16226,"date":"2024-09-11T10:46:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T14:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?p=16226"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:51:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:51:41","slug":"catherine-cullingham-highlights-the-role-of-mountain-pine-beetles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/2024\/catherine-cullingham-highlights-the-role-of-mountain-pine-beetles\/","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Cullingham Highlights the Role of Mountain Pine Beetles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Catherine Cullingham Highlights the Role of Mountain Pine Beetles\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/catherine-cullingham\/\">Catherine Cullingham<\/a>, a molecular ecologist &amp; Associate Professor at Carleton University, is shedding new light on the mountain pine beetle crisis affecting Western Canada\u2019s forests. Cullingham emphasizes that these beetles, though damaging, are a natural part of forest ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe mountain pine beetle is a natural disturbance agent,\u201d Cullingham explains. \u201cThey\u2019ve evolved with pine trees to help in forest regeneration.\u201d The beetles\u2019 role in killing older trees facilitates natural forest fires that allow new growth. However, recent climate changes and human activities have exacerbated their impact, leading to significant ecological and economic challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cullingham acknowledges the beetles&#8217; destructive effects but argues that they are fulfilling their ecological role. \u201cI feel bad for the beetles. We paint them out to be such a villain when it\u2019s just doing its thing!\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theweathernetwork.com\/en\/news\/nature\/animals\/do-mountain-pine-beetles-really-deserve-all-the-hate?ref=ccbox_home_archive\">Click here to read the full article!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Catherine Cullingham, a molecular ecologist &amp; Associate Professor at Carleton University, is shedding new light on the mountain pine beetle crisis affecting Western Canada\u2019s forests. Cullingham emphasizes that these beetles, though damaging, are a natural part of forest ecosystems. \u201cThe mountain pine beetle is a natural disturbance agent,\u201d Cullingham explains. \u201cThey\u2019ve evolved with pine trees [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16228,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16226\/revisions\/16228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}