Bark beetle outbreaks are a major disturbance of forests throughout western North America affecting ecological processes and social and economic values (Amman 1977, Bond and Keeley 2005). Since the 1990s, bark beetle outbreaks have affected between 1.1 and 13.5 million acres in the western United States and an additional 13.5 million acres in British Columbia (Meddens et al. 2012). Tree mortality resulting from bark beetles has affected lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, spruce-fir, Douglas-fir and pinyon pine forest types (Figure 1). The extent of the recent tree mortality due to bark beetle outbreaks has led to increased scientific, management and public interest in the implications of bark beetle-caused tree mortality for the behavior of subsequent wildfires.