BC Beetle Migrates to Saskatchewan

Just one year ago scientists and conservation officers were on the lookout for signs of the dreaded Mountain Pine Beetle - a tiny insect that has devastated 80 per cent of British Columbia's forests in less than 10 years - in Alberta. "If it crosses the Rockies" they said, "there's no other natural barrier to stop it's march straight across the Canadian Shield." This summer has seen park staff, forest companies and governments in Alberta employ several measures (from controlled burns to selected logging to pheromones) to try to hold back the beetle's relentless progess.

Now, in August of 2007, several parts of Saskatchewan have reported the little bugs' presence. It's favourite target in BC was the Lodgepole Pine; as it moves east it becomes equally at home in the Jack Pine forests.

This little wonder of nature, virtually indestructible (with anti-freeze running in it's blood during winter) and posing a double threat (it kills the trees by burrowing alleys between the bark and trunk where it lays eggs, plus a fungus that lives on the beetle leaves behind a blue stained wood) has seen a recent population explosion due directly to human activity. It's a perfect example of what happens when we think we are smarter than nature.

A hundred years ago and more, when this province was largely uninhabited, giant-sized forest fires used to rage across the land at regular intervals. Generally set by lightening in the summer, the fires were nature's way of clearing out the old, reducing the vegetation to rich fodder, and make way for new growth. In the mid-1980s it became standard policy for all parks land to immediately put out any fires that might start. Also, small towns and country communities were popping up everywhere; as soon as a posh golf club or fishing lodge was threatened by natural fire, locals raced to put it out.
Areas of diverse tree species that were logged were largely replanted with Lodgepole Pine (fast growing, relatively straight, knot-free wood). Huge parts of BC's interior were transformed into single-species, similar-aged forests. This turned out to be a recipe for disaster; it is now known that the beetle takes longer to munch through forests of a variety of ages and species. Ooops!

Twenty years later the forests became old, with thick underbrush. Not quite decadent, but getting close. As we should know by now, but seem very slow indeed to learn, if nature cannot manage itself in one way, it will find another. The pine beetle, formerly living in small pockets that did not travel far, population began to grow at an alarming rate by the end of the 1990s due to consecutive mild winters.
The only way to kill these bugs is for an extended period (two weeks) of very cold weather (-40 C) at the start of winter. By November the formaldehyde in their blood is plentiful so they just keep marching on.

The first true infestation of the pine beetle in BC started in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. The government policy of no forest fires was staunchly upheld, despite calls by staff and conservation officers alike that something must be done. By the new millenium, when the beetle had spread and the need for action was evident to all, the politicians declared, "All we need is a cold winter" and simply waited.
No one wanted to issue the incredibly unpopular order of a controlled burn! Again, as we now know, those cold winters have not been making themselves evident. And it seems unlikely that they will, into the immediate future.

In 2005 Alberta set up watch, looking for the tell-tale clouds of tiny acopolypse riding the air currents across the Rockies and into their forests. Last year various efforts were employed to contain the beetle to the stands of trees in which they were discovered.
This year, the town of Prince Albert and Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park are the beetle's most recent new home. Next year, what . . . Ottawa? Who knows. Nobody knows how far this will go.

To date the BC government has spent $189 million on efforts to recover dead wood, and to reforest affected areas. $50 million more has been allocated directly to worst-affected communities.
http://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2005_Sept_Update/bfp/6_tb_Mountain_Pine_Beetle.htm
Another $100 million has been promised by the Federal government.

Where forest companies had initially thought they had ten or 15 years to harvest the standing dead timber (depending on how dry the climate) they now find that even five year old beetle-kill wood is proving too brittle not only for the sawmills but for panel (OSB in particular) as well.

What we have here is the equivalent of matchsticks, stretching far and wide across this province, pointing up at the sky waiting for the next lightening strike to hit. When that happens, the trees will literally explode into flame, and no amount of pathetic human effort is going to be able to put it out.