Mountain pine beetles have left vast tracts of dead, dry trees in the West, raising fears that they’re more vulnerable to wildfire outbreaks, but a new study found no evidence that beetle-infested forests are more likely to burn than healthy ones.

In a paper released Monday, University of Colorado researchers said weather and terrain are bigger factors in determining whether a forest will burn than beetle invasions. The findings could provide some comfort to people who live near beetle-infested forests, if those trees are statistically no more likely to burn than healthy forests.

But the study acknowledged that other researchers have found that beetles pose different fire risks. Previous studies by the U.S. Forest Service found that once sparked, beetle-killed trees ignite faster and burn more quickly than healthy trees, posing a danger to firefighters.

The new findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers studied the three worst fire seasons in the past 12 years, when the weather was unusually hot and dry.

The study didn’t look at years with more moderate weather, but Sarah Hart, the lead author of the report, said she believes the results would be the same if it had. The study said beetle outbreaks and wildfires increased at the same time but that drought was behind the worsening fires.

From Oregon Live: https://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2015/03/beetle-infested_forests_no_mor.html?utm_source=WIT032715&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=WeekInTrees