Dead trees in Bavaria, Germany daitoZen/Getty
They might be small, but bark beetles can ruin a forest. In the US, tens of millions of acres have been devastated by them in the past decade alone. In Europe, however, a combination of drones and artificial intelligence might be giving trees a fighting chance.
Bark beetles burrow into trees and lay eggs under the surface of the bark where the larvae feed on the tree’s inner layers and eventually chew their way out. All of this damages the tree’s vascular system, fatally weakening it.
Within months of a bark beetle infestation,…
