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On the side of a mountain on the outskirts of Montana's capital city, loggers are racing against a beetle grub the size of a grain of rice. From New Mexico to British Columbia, the region's signature pine forests are succumbing to a huge infestation of mountain pine beetles that are turning a blanket of green forest into a blanket of rust red. Montana has lost a million acres of trees to the beetles, and in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming the situation is worse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on how the pine bark beetle infestation is affecting mountain forests of the Western U.S. regions. More than a million acres have been affected in Wyoming and Colorado. In areas with high terrorism, officials are trying to spray trees in an effort to control the infestations. Warmer winters and the drought conditions have not helped the cause either.