Modeling mountain pine beetle infestations in a dynamic landscape

We present a modeling framework in which forest pest infestation dynamics respond to and affect forest structure. The model makes use of an efficient homogenization routine that can increase the speed of iterations 1000-fold with negligible fidelity loss. We use the model to demonstrate a method of risk analysis for forest pests that puts hazard rating into a population-dynamic context to project the near-term probability and severity of outbreaks.