Tree-killing bug menaces Europe's pine forests

Manuel Coimbra watches in silence, his hands on his hips, as a lumberjack saws down one of his pine trees to stop a killer bug which experts say could wipe out large belts of European woodland. The dense forests that blanket the hillsides of this rural area of central Portugal are the latest international conquest for the pest which has caused ecological catastrophes in East Asia. Thousands of trees here are already dead, according to locals. "It makes me sad," Coimbra says, leaning against a jeep on a shady dirt road as experts bag shavings from the felled tree for testing at a local lab. "Future generations probably won't know what we're talking about when we tell them about pine forests. We'd better start taking some photographs to show them," said Coimbra, a soft-spoken middle-aged man who owns about 20 acres (8 hectares)... [read full story]