Mountain Pine Beetle

2012-02-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

BC failing to plant enough trees to sustain future timber supply

The British Columbia government has failed to sufficiently replant the forests it manages and needs to develop a plan, Auditor General John Doyle said in a report today.

"Significant areas of the forest are presently damaged by wildfire, diseases or pests such as mountain pine beetle, and the decision whether to replant lies with government," he said. "Unlike industry, government is not legally obligated to reforest. As such, very limited replanting has occurred."

The government is responsible for 90 percent of the 22 million hectares of forested land that are available for timber production and harvesting in the province, Doyle wrote.

2012-02-08T14:53:00.001-08:00

Collapse and renewal

In less than 30 years, three massive bark beetle epidemics in the northwest have dramatically changed the North American landscape.

In the first Bow Valley Naturalists meeting of 2012, award-winning journalist Andrew Nikiforuk gave a presentation titled The Beetle Economy: A Modern Tale of Collapse and Renewal.

Nikiforuk explained that the only way to renew a forest is by allowing fire or allowing bark beetles. For years, humans practiced fire suppression, leaving much of our current forests aged. This, along with climate change, are some of the main reasons for these epidemics.

2012-02-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

New Democrats Attack Bell's Tenure In Forests Ministry

The B.C. New Democrats are claiming the Forest Practices Board has confirmed that former forest minister Pat Bell has been grossly understating the true problems facing B.C.'s forests.

New Democrat forest critic Norm Macdonald said Bell needs to explainwhy his estimate of crown lands that have not been adequately replanted was less than 10 per cent of the total the Forest Practices Board revealed Thursday.

"Either the minister was badly misinformed or he was purposefully understating the problem facing our forests," said Macdonald. "The Liberal government has utterly abandoned B.C.'s forests. Treeplanting and silviculture work has been reduced even after cutting increased and at a time when fire and pests like the beetle are already taking their toll on the forests."

2012-02-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

BC’s Chief Forester says pine beetle kill wasn’t as destructive as first feared

Jim Snetsinger, British Columbia’s Chief Forester, told a convention of the Western Silviculture Contractors’ Association this week that the historic mountain pine beetle infestation in interior B.C. wasn’t as destructive as first feared.

“In 2006, we were projecting a mountain pine beetle kill of 80 per cent of pine by 2013,” Jim Snetsinger said. “Our 2011 models . . . now tell us mountain pine beetle will kill about 61 per cent of susceptible pine by 2021.”

Unfortunately the news isn’t all good. Snetsinger said the mountain pine beetle continues to kill large numbers of lodgepole pine. More than half of merchantable pine in the Interior has been lost to date, even though the mortality peaked in 2004-05.

2012-02-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

Pine beetle kill less than projected, says chief forester

B.C.'s chief forester painted a mountain pine beetle picture both good and bad Thursday for silviculturalists gathered in Kamloops.

The good news is the historic infestation that destroyed Interior pine stands through the middle of the last decade wasn't as destructive as first feared.

"In 2006, we were projecting a mountain pine beetle kill of 80 per cent of pine by 2013," Jim Snetsinger told a convention of the Western Silviculture Contractors' Association. "Our 2011 models . . . now tell us mountain pine beetle will kill about 61 per cent of susceptible pine by 2021."

2012-02-02T14:50:00.000-08:00

Beetle battle

Provincial surveys for the mountain pine beetle will be extended for a few more months in Saskatchewan after a higher-than-expected number of infested trees were found in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park.

The first survey was done in September and pine forests in northwestern Saskatchewan and in Cypress Hills were surveyed for the forest pest and while no pine beetles were found in the northern boreal forest officials are working to closely monitor all pine forests.

The pine beetle survey is being conducted by Great Western Forestry Ltd. for the Saskatchewan government. The survey extension will cost up to an extra $100,000 bringing the total cost of the pine beetle surveillance to $300,000 this year.

2012-01-30T11:13:00.000-08:00

Libs Threaten Hard Won Logging Agreements: Simpson

As the government looks for ways to provide more timber to mills in communities affected by the mountain pine beetle kill, it will set precedents for logging companies in other parts of British Columbia, said the MLA for Cariboo North, independent Bob Simpson.

"To me what they're asking for is a fight," said Simpson. "I have no problem being upfront and getting shot between the eyes on it, because it's bullshit."

The government is considering lifting the "constraints" set out in the Land Use Plan for the Cariboo-Chilcotin, said Simpson.

2012-01-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

Province seeks pine-beetle reforestation partners

Private investors are being offered a chance to create forestry jobs, fight global warming and reduce their carbon footprint under an innovative silviculture partnership sponsored by the B.C. government, Forests Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson announced.

The ministry has issued a request for proposals from parties interested in replanting Crown land damaged by wildfires, pine beetle and other factors not related to commercial timber harvesting.

The request for proposals is available at: www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca.

2012-01-27T11:10:00.000-08:00

Former beetle boss to lead recovery at Burns Lake

Bob Clark, the top forester in charge of managing British Columbia’s mountain pine beetle infestation, has been recruited by the province to lead response efforts at Burns Lake after a sawmill explosion that killed two workers.

Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell made the announcement Friday in Burns Lake where he and local MLA John Rustad are meeting with community leaders.

Bell said Clark, who has left the forest service and is now a consultant, has the experience in working with inter-governmental issues to address the most pressing needs in Burns Lake: short-term employment for the workers who lost their jobs when the mill burned after the Jan. 20 explosion, and the long-term issue of finding enough fibre to justify majority owner Hampton Affiliates rebuilding the sawmill.

2012-01-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

Rebuilding destroyed mill hinges on damaged forest

Mill workers in Burns Lake, B.C., will be collecting their final pay cheque Thursday as the company that owns the mill that was levelled in a fire last week tries to decide if there's enough timber in the area to justify rebuilding.

Two workers were killed and 19 others were injured when the Babine Forest Products mill blew up and burned Jan. 20, destroying the workplace of the major employer in the town, 200 kilometres west of Prince George.

A once richly forested area, Burns Lake is located among the province’s woodlands that have been devastated by the pine beetle infestation.

2012-01-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

Mountain pine beetle infestation worse in Cypress Hills

The mountain pine beetle infestation in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is worse than originally thought, the Saskatchewan government says.

The province's Environment Department said Monday it has found a higher-than-expected number of trees in the park, that are infested with voracious pest.

In recent years, the beetles have destroyed millions of hectares of pine forests in B.C. and have been sweeping eastward.

2012-01-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

Alberta's wild winter helping with pine beetle battle

The wild swings in temperature experienced in Alberta this winter could provide a big boost in the battle against the mountain pine beetle.

Normally temperatures of -40C — and that’s ambient temperature, without windchill — are needed for at least 24 hours to start killing off the beetles, but big fluctuations can actually do the same thing, officials said.

“When the weather gets warmer, the internal mechanism of the beetle says, ‘hey, spring is coming,’ and they start to convert their natural anti-freeze to energy,” said Alberta Sustainable Resource Development spokesman Duncan MacDonnell.

2011-12-28T12:49:00.001-08:00

Writers on the Range: A forest management structure that can't cope

When my East Coast-based parents came to Breckenridge, Colo., for our family vacation in June this year, my dad couldn't stop exclaiming over the dead trees. Scores of rust-colored lodgepole pines, killed by the bark beetle epidemic, lined pretty much every road we drove down or bike path we pedaled on.

My father, who attended college on a scholarship for pulp and paper mill technology, wondered why the trees weren't being logged and used. One answer is that most of Colorado's lumber mills have been shut down for a long time. But the inability to deal with dead trees is just one in a line of management obstacles facing agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, as it struggles to cope with forest management in this age of disturbance.

A recent report issued by the Forest Service on its response to the bark-beetle outbreak in Colorado and southern Wyoming points to deeper problems than a paucity of sawmills. Land managers were slow to respond to beetle kill partly because the agency lacked funding to deal with the epidemic when it really took hold in the 1990s, say the report's authors. Add that to a “lack of public acceptance” of the large-scale logging that managers employ to make forests more diverse and resilient, and you get the perfect setup for the sudden, massive beetle kills that continue to shock locals as well as visitors.

2011-12-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Wood marketing tool will provide opportunities

A website designed to connect buyers and sellers of British Columbia wood products was launched this fall by Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Steve Thomson recently.

WoodSourceBC.com was initially formed under the Bridges Project and is intended to provide easy access to current information on the availability of wood products within forest communities across the province.

An initiative of the province's three Beetle Action Committees, the B.C. Community Forest Association, the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations (FBCWA) and Community Futures, its goal is to identify new log market opportunities in an effort to increase the value of wood to small-tenure holders.

2011-12-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

Bark beetles, climate change and our future

Recently, a classmate from the University of B.C. asked what I thought about Canada backing out of the Kyoto agreement, and if there was any connection between the insatiable bark beetles infesting the province’s forests and the rising temperatures on Earth.

First, trees are effectively the greatest CO2 warehouses ever created. For every metric ton of wood grown, 1.5 metric tons of CO2 is absorbed and one metric ton of oxygen is released.

Bark beetles like the mountain pine or spruce beetles and lightning-induced fires are nature’s emissaries of change. All forests must undergo a natural process of aging, facilitating regeneration — new life.

2011-12-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

Salvage logging, drought, cold weather all factors in Chilcotin ranch water woes

Salvage logging of beetle-killed lodgepole pine forests contributed to water problems on a Chilcotin ranch, the Forest Practices Board said in a report released Tuesday.

But the board suggested that drought and cold weather were also contributing factors on Twinflower Creek flowing through Randy Saugstad’s ranch.

In January 2011, the rancher experienced an “unexpected loss of water when a stream his cattle regularly drink from inexplicably froze solid, and then later in the year two floods affected his pasture land,” the board found. Saugstad blamed salvage logging by Tolko Industries Ltd. of beetle-killed timber in the watershed.

2011-12-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

Lumber quality at centre of dispute as US accuses Canada of purposefully underselling wood

When it comes to getting lumber off lots, bad grades are a good thing and U.S. mills say their Canadian counterparts are flunking on purpose.

The conflict is particularly pronounced at an Oregon mill, where owner Steve Swanson says underpriced Canadian wood is forcing him to lay off employees, the Roseburg News-Review reported,

The lumber is priced by grade. Mills in British Columbia claim a pine beetle infestation is affecting their harvest, forcing them to drop the price on lumber.

2011-12-07T12:45:00.001-08:00

A flood of problems for ranchers

Watching the pine beetles kill off the Chilcotin's vast stands of lodgepole pine forest was bad enough for cattle rancher Randy Saugstad.

But he argues the greater concern is the way the B.C. government has allowed salvage logging to take precedence on Crown forests at the expense of other land uses and the environment.

Pointing to a clearcut on the hillside in the distance, he laments: "It's like a gold rush mentality. They have an insatiable appetite for this wood."

2011-12-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

'It looks like Armageddon': The destruction of B.C. pine forests

Debbie Atha had a dream that went like this: Gregarious woman approaching 30 quits her well-paying pharmaceutical sales job in England to move to the B.C. Interior to invest her time and money building a dude ranch.

"I had an early midlife crisis," she allows. "I wanted to do something special."

And why not? The province had billed itself as Super Natural, the Best Place on Earth, a land where the government is officially committed to doubling tourism revenues by 2015.

2011-12-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Forestry's 'perfect storm'

The Chilcotin's beetle-killed lodge-pole pine forests are saturated with water. The harvesting crews have been sent home. And logging trucks known as Super-B Trains, hauling 300 to 400 logs apiece, are inching their way through deep mud wallows.

Tolko Industries Ltd. needs 125 loads per day to feed its two operating mills in Williams Lake, and likes to maintain a raw-wood inventory of a week or so.

Conditions in the bush have reduced that to as little as one day when The Vancouver Sun visits.

2011-12-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

Saskatchewan ponies up money to help Alberta stop mountain pine beetle spread

Saskatchewan is helping its western neighbour in an effort to keep a voracious bug out of its own backyard.

The province is putting up $150,000 to help control the mountain pine beetle outbreak in Alberta and to prevent its spread into Saskatchewan's northern forest.

The money is intended for enhanced monitoring, aggressive removal of infested trees and research.

2011-12-06T12:42:00.000-08:00

'Dead' pine forests very much alive

Phil Burton calls this place a jungle.

It's not the tropical Amazonian rainforest or even B.C.'s temperate rainforest, but a stand of lodgepole pine located off the Pelican Forest Service Road about an hour's drive southwest of Prince George.

The federal forests researcher estimates the pines were about 30 years old when the mountain pine beetle epidemic swept through here in 2005.

2011-12-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

The environmental costs of B.C.'s logging war on pine beetles

The province sold the epidemic as unprecedented in North American history.

Biblical plagues of mountain pine beetles sweeping across the Interior landscape in dark clouds, leaving a dead zone more than five times the size of Vancouver Island in their wake.

This was war. And the government fought back with an equally aggressive salvage-logging strategy, initially to try to stop the beetle’s spread, and then to harvest as much dead wood as possible before it decayed or burned.

2011-11-30T12:36:00.000-08:00

Pine beetle logging's negative impact

It's been a full decade since the B.C. government started increasing the annual allowable cut of lodgepole pine stands by an average 80 per cent — in some areas, much higher — in the battle against an infestation of pine beetles that was wiping out trees.

The province promised that salvage logging of Interior pine forests would respect "other forest values" — the environment — but is that what happened?

A lengthy investigation by The Vancouver Sun shows that large-scale salvage logging has had wide-ranging negative environmental impacts that extend well beyond the death of pine trees due to beetle attack.

2011-11-29T20:23:00.002-08:00

Pine beetle toll on Alberta forest falls by half

Alberta said Tuesday that its annual aerial survey of pine beetle-infested forest shows the number of trees killed by the invasive insect fell by half compared with last year.

"I don't think we'd claim total victory, but we are clearly having an impact," said Sustainable Resource Development Minister Frank Oberle. "We have about 50 per cent fewer red trees this year than last year." Pines killed by the beetle turn red about one year after they die.

"They've made considerable efforts," said Allan Carroll, a professor in the department of forest sciences at the University of British Columbia. "They've been very, very rigorous in their approach, and I think they certainly have achieved a positive result.

2011-11-29T20:23:00.001-08:00

Alberta makes progress fighting eastward march of tree-killing pine beetle

New aerial photos suggest Alberta is making progress halting the eastward march of the voracious, tree-killing mountain pine beetle.

The surveys show about 50 per cent fewer red beetle-killed pine trees where control programs are in effect, primarily in west-central Alberta and east to Slave Lake.

"This year's surveys show some positive results where the province's mountain pine beetle control strategy has been most aggressive," said Sustainable Resource Development Minister Frank Oberle in a news release.

2011-11-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

Pine beetle numbers dwindle in Alberta forest

2011-11-28T10:53:00.001-08:00

Washington scrambles to fight massive tree destruction

So many pine, fir and spruce trees in the Northwest are riddled with bugs and disease that major tree die-offs are expected to rip through a third of Eastern Washington forests — an area covering nearly 3 million acres — in the next 15 years, according to new state projections.

Because Washington’s forests are deteriorating so quickly, the state commissioner of public lands has said he’ll appoint an emergency panel of scientists and foresters to seek ways to stabilize or reverse the decline.

The problem is largely centered on tree-killing scourges such as the mountain pine beetle, which is spreading rapidly and getting into ever higher-elevation trees such as the troubled whitebark pine.

2011-11-26T15:36:00.001-08:00

Injunction seeks to prevent pointless destruction of land

The Tsilhqot'in Nation will seek Monday to protect a prized area of its territories from being damaged by exploration work based on permits that were granted in breach of the Crown's consultation obligations for a mining proposal that has already been rejected in an extensive and independent environmental assessment.

Taseko Mines Ltd argued in court earlier this month when the injunctions battle began that it would be doing work on an area that is already dead because of the pine beetle. In fact, however, the Little Fish Lake area that is the target of planned roads and drilling is a vibrant, thriving area.

"The Tsilhqot'in are seeking an injunction to prevent exploration work from proceeding, and we have a separate application before the courts for a judicial review of the BC permits granted for the work, which we believe were illegal and must be revoked or suspended," said Tsilhqot'in Tribal Chair Joe Alphonse.

2011-11-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

Canada says US softwood claims are "baseless"

The Canadian government says American complaints that British Columbia has violated the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement are “baseless” relying selected information that does not portray the extent of the mountain pine beetle’s disastrous impact on this province’s timber supply.

Canada’s defence of B.C. timber pricing was released Tuesday after being filed earlier in the month with the London Court of International Arbitration. The 207-page-long document is in response to a complaint filed with the court by the United States. The U.S. alleges that B.C. Interior sawmills have unfairly benefited from the mountain pine beetle epidemic by paying salvage log prices of 25 cents a cubic metre for timber that was successfully milled into lumber.

The U.S. is claiming $499 million in damages.

2011-11-24T17:23:00.000-08:00

State scrambles to fight massive tree die-offs

So many pine, fir and spruce trees in the Northwest are riddled with bugs and disease that major tree die-offs are expected to rip through a third of Eastern Washington forests — an area covering nearly 3 million acres — in the next 15 years, according to new state projections.

Because Washington's forests are deteriorating so quickly, the state commissioner of public lands last week said he'll appoint an emergency panel of scientists and foresters to seek ways to stabilize or reverse the decline.

The problem, as The Seattle Times reported earlier this month, is largely centered on tree-killing scourges such as the mountain pine beetle, which is spreading rapidly and getting into ever higher-elevation trees such as the troubled whitebark pine.

2011-11-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

Pine Beetles defying anti-infestation efforts in Alberta

Mountain pine beetles are still thriving in parts of Alberta and are spreading east despite $300 million and years of effort to thwart the tiny tree-killers.

A new generation of bugs took flight this summer, with some landing in mixed boreal forest close to the Saskatchewan boundary.

Experts have been reviewing the spread of the infestation as the Alberta government plans a new winter campaign to cut, remove and burn stricken trees. Last winter, 170,000 trees were destroyed in a bid to reduce the threat.

2011-11-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

Early detection key in fighting Mountain Pine Beetle

News that the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation, which has decimated the central interior of British Columbia, had made its way over the Rocky Mountains to Alberta is a cause for concern amongst entomologists.

Earlier this year it was discovered that these beetles had successfully made the transition from Lodgepole Pine, B.C. to Jack Pine in Alberta. This spells bad news for the boreal forests of Saskatchewan if the beetle continues its migration east.

Forestry Insect and Disease expert with the Ministry, Dr. Rory McIntosh feels a new approach is needed in monitoring the beetles.

2011-11-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

Burning wood waste for energy not entirely a clear-cut call

Forest management in British Columbia is coming under scrutiny as the province's drive to develop a bioenergy industry moves into the beetlekilled pine stands of the central Interior.

B.C. is committed to using wood to generate electricity - BC Hydro has already conducted two calls for proposals on bioenergy projects - but questions are being raised by scientists and environmentalists alike on how much wood can be removed and whether or not it truly is a carbon-neutral source of energy.

Leading the fray against bioenergy is Greenpeace, which released a report Nov. 2 calling for tighter controls on harvesting biomass, more detailed carbon accounting, and restricting bioenergy projects to small, local operations.

2011-11-03T15:09:00.001-07:00

These beetles are far from boring

Beetles, like other creatures in nature, are a very important part of the ecosystem. The picture you see is that of a beetle in the Canadian Rockies. The Canadian Rockies shelter some of the world’s largest and best national parks which offer some of the most spectacular scenery. The two world-famous parks are Banff and Jasper.

The coniferous trees with the snow-capped mountains as backdrop leave visitors gasping for breath. The lakes in the park are beautiful in themselves with their crystal clear turquoise coloured water. More importantly, one can see the reflection of the trees and mountains in them which gives a picture postcard view.

The Boring Beetles are a species called Mountain Pine Beetle. They play an important role in the survival of the beautiful forest since they kill mature or old lodgepole pine trees by “boring” or drilling into them. This is a blessing since it enables new species of plants and animals to thrive.

2011-11-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

The forests of the future climate

Oregon State University has released a new study that says climate change, insect attacks, diseases and fire are causing huge migration of trees across the West.

Researchers looked at how 15 species of conifer trees are already migrating, and they predict what the forests of the future climate will look like.

“The forests of our future are going to look quite different,” said Richard Waring, professor emeritus at OSU and lead author of the study. “We can’t predict exactly which tree (species) will die or which one will take its place, but we can see the long-term trends and probabilities.”

2011-11-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Researchers say climate change is changing Pacific Northwest forest structure as well

A new study by forest researchers suggests some types of trees will lose ground to other species as climate change raises temperatures and tweaks precipitation patterns.

That could be bad news for lodgepole pine forests in southern Oregon, which have been devastated by bark beetle infestations and now may have a tough time making a comeback. Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, which are more adaptable, may move into the pine's territory.

The study predicts "large scale disturbances" in Pacific Northwest forests as temperatures rise 5 to 9 degrees by 2080, with more rain in winter and spring, reduced snowpacks and dryer summers.

2011-10-31T16:05:00.001-07:00

UNBC Receives Funding to Research Best Uses for Pine Beetle-Infested Wood

A research project at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) will be receiving $100,000 to study the best uses for stands of timber killed by the mountain pine beetle. The project, led by UNBC Ecosystem Science and Management professor Art Fredeen, involves researchers from UNBC, UBC, and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The research aims to assist policy-makers and forest-users in achieving the best balance when utilizing BC's forest resource. Specifically, it attempts to increase understanding of when and where it makes sense to harvest beetle-attacked forests.

The award--to be split over two years--is part of $450,000 in new research funding announced by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS). The goal is to aid studies on the impact of climate change on the province's forests and find more sustainable management practices.

"Many parties, including the BC government, independent power producers, and the forestry industry, have advocated for the production of energy from wood, driven largely by the mountain pine beetle outbreak and the fate of an estimated 675 million cubic metres of pine in the province," says Dr. Fredeen. "However, new research indicates that these attacked pine stands are far from lifeless, and in many cases are already carbon sinks, in addition to their providing quality lumber and bioenergy fuel."

2011-10-30T07:02:00.001-07:00

Scientists: Despite beetle epidemic, forest resilient

University of Wyoming professor Dan Tinker clicked the power point slide at Friday's Future Forests Summit to bring up a grim photograph.

Reminiscent of scenes from movies set in post apocalyptic worlds, the image showed a forest so destroyed by wind and fire that only a few hopeless stumps still stood, silhouetted against the sky.

It was a photo of Yellowstone National Park in the wake of the 1988 wildfire.

2011-10-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

Empire of the beetle

Anyone who has driven through central BC recently knows what mountain pine beetles can do to a forest. Huge swaths of dead trees now blanket entire mountainsides in red. British Columbia's bark beetle outbreak was unprecedented, and it didn't take long before the insects began dropping in on Alberta.

While there's a temptation to think of mountain pine beetles as a BC problem that has begun to seep into Alberta from next door, Andrew Nikiforuk makes clear in his new book, Empire of the Beetle, that nothing could be further from the truth. While bark beetles are a natural, healthy part of forest ecosystems, in recent decades outbreaks have been growing in severity and the insects have started popping up in areas where they have never been seen before. In the 1990s they wiped out more than 200 million trees in Alaska before crossing the border into the Yukon and wreaking havoc with an ecosystem that had never seen them before. In the 2000s they hit Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. The outbreak in BC may be close to home, but it is far from an isolated incident.

Nikiforuk spent two years crisscrossing the continent in search of bark beetles and the people whose lives they've changed. While government and industry are quick to tally the economic costs of lost timber, it soon became clear that the true impact is on the psyches of ordinary people. In Alaska, a couple who built their home amongst a cathedral of towering Sitka spruce packs up and leaves, heartbroken by the loss of their trees. In central BC, school children begin colouring the lodgepole pines in their drawings red rather than green. An artist organizes a touring exhibition of work commemorating the lost forests which sees visitors leave in tears. The financial costs may be huge, but the communities that have been affected by bark beetles need far more than economic help.

2011-10-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

A complicated balance

As humans, we use the forest in many ways, benefitting from the resources it offers to business, tourism, housing and recreation. Still, we are only one part of a large, diverse population that calls the Black Hills home.

We share the forest with the pine beetle as well as the pine marten. Goshawks, deer, elk, trout, even snails and uncountable insects hang their hats in the vast acres of equally diverse tree species that make up our forest.

But finding a proper balance between our uses of it, the lives of other species and maintaining the best possible conditions for the health of the trees, is a complex issue — particularly because the environment affected by the outbreak is also in some ways responsible for causing it.

2011-10-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

Painful lessons from blighted forests

It's 2001 all over again in forestry news these days, now that those nasty little mountain pine beetles have worked their way into Alberta.

The story in the Edmonton Journal this week about the beetle infestation could have been lifted from any B.C. newspaper a decade ago, when the insidious insects first began upping their game in our own lodgepole-pine forests.

More than 17 million hectares of B.C. pine forest have been affected since then. The province has spent more than $750 million trying to mitigate the damage.

2011-10-18T20:43:00.001-07:00

Beetle invasion threatens Jasper Park's forests

In the summer of 2010, Parks Canada biologist Dave Smith conducted aerial and ground surveys of three main valleys in Jasper National Park and found 400 trees that had been attacked by the mountain pine beetle.

Until then, Jasper had been one of the few regions on the east slopes of the Rockies that had not been seriously affected by this slow moving catastrophe that has destroyed million-dollar mountain views, shuttered lumber mills, dramatically intensified the threat of forest fires and reshaped British Columbia’s economy the past 15 years.

But this summer when I joined Smith and Gary Roke, a mountain pine beetle specialist with the Canadian Forest Service, they found so many trees in Jasper that had been reddened by the pine beetle that they decided that there was no use counting again; they would have to find some other way of monitoring the situation.

2011-10-18T20:42:00.002-07:00

Compensation to be provided for beetle damage

Town of Edson and Yellowhead County residents who've had trees damaged by the mountain pine beetle can once again get them replaced through the ReLeaf Program.

Tree Canada and Alberta Sustainable Resources, with sponsorships from Telus and Strive Energy, will provide a total of $100,000 in compensation to Alberta residents whose trees have been impacted. The Alberta government has contributed $60,000 to the program, while Telus and Strive Energy chipped in $30,000 and $10,000 respectively.

Sustainable Resources Development spokesperson Duncan MacDonnell said last year's money was spread around the province to affected landowners. But claimants should not go through SRD.

2011-10-18T20:42:00.001-07:00

With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors

The trees spanning many of the mountainsides of western Montana glow an earthy red, like a broadleaf forest at the beginning of autumn.

But these trees are not supposed to turn red. They are evergreens, falling victim to beetles that used to be controlled in part by bitterly cold winters. As the climate warms, scientists say, that control is no longer happening.

Across millions of acres, the pines of the northern and central Rockies are dying, just one among many types of forests that are showing signs of distress these days.

2011-10-01T17:08:00.001-07:00

Provincial outlook for forestry not so bleak

Chief Forester Jim Snetsinger has said the province's short and mid term timber supply outlook is not as dismal as predicted five years ago.

He said to Lakes District News that while the Lakes Timber Supply Area (Lakes TSA) has been hard hit by the mountain pine beetle epidemic, provincially things are shaping up to be better than originally predicted.

The predictions are based on annual province wide aerial monitoring. "Using a fixed wing aircraft, flights are made province wide for aerial mapping." Predictions are also about a year behind the destruction. Many trees are dead but are still green, not yet showing the signature red needles of mountain pine beetle destruction. Newly attacked lodge pole pine trees turn red about one year after infestation.

2011-10-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

Beetle relief a reality

Private landowners and municipalities across Alberta are being offered help to replace trees lost to the mountain pine beetle over the summer.

The ReLeaf program, which is being offered jointly by Alberta Sustainable Resources Development (SRD), is offering $100,000 for those affected across Alberta with the help of sponsorship from Telus and Strive Energy.

Those who have damage due to the pine beetle can apply for relief for replacement through www.treecanada.ca or 1-877-390-TREE.

2011-09-23T12:20:00.001-07:00

Dying forests: Beetles gnaw way through millions of acres in Utah, West

A gray-whiskered former fly-fishing guide waded through a horse pasture whacking weeds for his neighbor, the rumbling machine in his hands slicing thistles and sparing a robust tangle of grass and wildflowers, while on mountain ridges all around him, the trees silently died.

Beetles.

Here, along the pine-scented exurban glory of Trail Creek, Lester DuChane and his sparse neighbors are the latest Westerners to watch their green valley turn red and fade to gray as swarms of rice-grain-size beetles eat the Rocky Mountain forest. He cannot figure out why the government never launched an aggressive counterattack against an epidemic, which has swept through neighboring ranges almost since he settled here in 1994.

2011-09-12T10:28:00.002-07:00

Sections of Yoho closed for prescribed burn

Parts of Yoho National Park will be closed to hikers and back-country users as a prescribed burn is scheduled to take place on Monday, weather permitting.

The burn area, approximately 2,100 hectares in size, is about six kilometres west of Field, B.C. on the Mount Duchesnay slopes between the Boulder and Ottertail creeks.

The prescribed fire aims to protect the town of Field from the threat of wildfire by reducing forest fuels and creating a firebreak in the Kicking Horse Valley, to cut down the pine beetle habitat and to improve wildlife habitat. 

2011-09-12T10:28:00.001-07:00

Mine has Princeton booming

Princeton Mayor Randy McLean said the closing of the Similco mine 15 years ago put a malaise on the community, but Copper Mountain has changed that.

“It’s that attitude I talked about, that confidence. We have a community that is so upbeat and positive and it’s thanks to the mine,” said Princeton Mayor Randy McLean. “There is a lot of young people moving here which brings a boost in economic confidence and a different atmosphere, making it a well-rounded community. The mine has brought a real improvement on so many levels.”

And it came just at the right time as the community’s bread and butter forest industry was getting hammered by pine beetle infestation. Just a few years ago Princeton was on top of the list for forest towns in line to receive government assistance. Since Copper Mountain went from rumour to reality, that has changed. 

2011-09-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Addressing the ‘crisis in our forests’

More than 90 per cent of the forest land in B.C. is owned by the public, yet most people are not aware of what is going on in our forests and how these forests are managed.

Concerns such as the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic, wildfires, the impacts of climate change and a reduction in government funding have resulted in what some are calling a “crisis in our forests.”

B.C.’s forests are known for producing timber and creating jobs, and this industry has and will continue to be an important aspect of the B.C. economy. 

2011-08-28T11:12:00.002-07:00

Tiny bug, massive damage

This book should be required reading for people who still laugh at those stale dinosaur-flatulence jokes whenever the topics of environmental degradation and global warming come up.

Earth-orbiting astronauts and airline passengers crossing the Rocky Mountains can't miss seeing vast and ever-widening patches of red and grey among green-canopied pine forests, stark evidence of a growing empire fashioned by minuscule architects.

Worldwide there are similar scenes, far-flung territories belonging to an empire so old and adaptive that it once included dinosaurs and today controls the vagaries of our continent's huge lumber economy.

2011-08-28T11:12:00.001-07:00

U.S. seeks $499 million export tax against B.C. lumber companies

The United States is seeking a $499 million penalty against Interior British Columbia lumber companies in a complaint filed under the Softwood Lumber Agreement.

The U.S. alleges that Interior sawmills unfairly benefited from the mountain pine beetle epidemic by paying salvage log prices for dead pine trees that were successfully milled into lumber. It bases much of its claim on the fact that the volume of low-grade logs being harvested and milled into lumber has gone up in the B.C. Interior, but the volume of higher grade construction lumber did not decline.

The low salvage timber rate lumber producers paid for pine beetle wood, 25 cents a cubic metre, resulted in a $499 million benefit to B.C. producers in contravention of the 2006 agreement, the United States Trade Representative argues in a brief filed last week with the London Court of International Arbitration. The brief was only made public this week. The U.S. wants the penalty to be imposed as an export tax levied against Interior producers.

2011-08-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Fuel mitigation funds requested

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) will apply to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) for grants to be used for the preparation of fuel management prescriptions.

The proposed projects include removing pine beetle-killed trees in forested areas at Loon Lake and South Green Lake for wildfire fuel mitigation.

TNRD Area E (Bonaparte Plateau) Director Sally Watson says the applications include one for prescription funding near Loon Lake, and another for operational funding at South Green Lake.

2011-08-15T11:09:00.001-07:00

U.S. softwood challenge 'frivolous'

B.C.'s former former forestry minister says the complaint against B.C. softwood lumber producers filed by U.S. forestry companies is "frivolous."

The U.S. submission was filed with the London Court of International Arbitration in January after consultations last fall failed to result in a resolution.

The claim suggests B.C. trees destroyed by the pine beetle have been turned into logs or lumber — at low provincial government cutting fees — and shipped to the U.S. market, giving B.C. mills an unfair advantage in softwood sales.

2011-08-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

B.C. lumber group says U.S. softwood lumber filing is without merit

The U.S. arbitration submission under the Softwood Lumber Agreement will remain confidential for a week, but a group representing B.C. lumber producers says reports about its contents suggest the unfair trade case against Canada is without merit.

The British Columbia Lumber Trade Council says the U.S. case to the London Court of International Arbitration filed Tuesday ignores the “real facts” associated with the impact of the Mountain Pine Beetle on the B.C. Interior.

U.S. forestry companies complain that B.C. trees destroyed by the pine beetle have been turned into logs or lumber — at low provincial government cutting fees — and shipped to the U.S. market.

2011-08-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

U.S. expected to demand billions in penalties over B.C. softwood lumber

The United States is expected to seek billions of dollars in penalties Tuesday when it files its case to back a claim that British Columbia is subsidizing wood damaged by the mountain pine beetle.

The U.S. Trade Representative is slated to present a brief to the London Court of International Arbitration seven months after it alleged that British Columbia was breaking the 2006 softwood lumber agreement by selling the province's timber at artificially low prices.

In January, it filed a complaint after consultations last fall failed to result in a resolution.

2011-08-09T13:11:00.002-07:00

Lumber Dispute Goes To Hearing

The latest round of the Canada U.S. softwood lumber dispute will continue Tuesday as the United States is set to make its case at an international tribunal that British Columbia is subsidizing timber prices for pine-beetle damaged trees. The U.S. Trade Representative, on Tuesday will present its brief to the London Court of International Arbitration in its case that British Columbia is using its program to salvage pine-beetle-damaged timber to sell wood to lumber producers at below rates established in the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement.

The London Court of Arbitration is the body Canada and the U.S. selected as the final level of appeal for disputes under the agreement.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in January filed its intent to challenge Canada at the London Court after a round of consultations between the U.S. and Canada last fall, the first level of dispute resolution, failed to reach a conclusion.

2011-08-09T13:11:00.001-07:00

Tree removal costs trimmed

In order to help private property owners with the mitigation of wildfire threatened areas caused by pine beetle, the District of Lake Country will be subsidizing the costs of tree removal and disposal.

The multi-year pine beetle mitigation project will begin in Carr’s Landing with interested property owners completing an application form and undergoing a site inspection of their property to determine the amount of work required.

Once site inspections are complete owners will receive a cost estimate and can then decide if they wish to continue with the mitigation work.

2011-08-09T13:10:00.002-07:00

Canada U.S. softwood lumber dispute to pick up in London

The latest round of the Canada U.S. softwood lumber dispute will continue Aug. 9 as the United States is set to make its case at an international tribunal that British Columbia is subsidizing timber prices for pine-beetle damaged trees.

The U.S. Trade Representative, on Aug. 9, will present its brief to the London Court of International Arbitration in its case that British Columbia is using its program to salvage pine-beetle-damaged timber to sell wood to lumber producers at below rates established in the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement.

The London Court of Arbitration is the body Canada and the U.S. selected as the final level of appeal for disputes under the agreement.

2011-08-09T13:10:00.001-07:00

Bioenergy projects approved for Interior

BC Hydro has approved $300 million in bioenergy projects in the Interior and north-central B.C., regions hard hit by the mountain pine beetle epidemic and the U.S. housing collapse.

The projects will help better utilize the abundant waste wood in the areas, B.C. Energy and Mines Minister Rich Coleman said Thursday. The four projects will also help generate economic activity and jobs, he said in an interview.

"I believe we have a huge bioenergy future in these regions," said Coleman, noting that there is also deteriorating old-growth timber in northwest B.C. that can be tapped for bioenergy.

2011-07-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

$1 million goes to bio-coal project slated for Kamloops

The Innovative Clean Energy Fund — the same government program that funded Aboriginal Cogeneration Corporation’s gasification proposal — has granted $1 million to a “bio-coal” production plant in Kamloops.

Nations Energy Corporation, a Vancouver company, will use the funds to build a commercial-scale plant to convert mountain pine beetle wood into clean-burning biomass.

Using a process known as torrefaction — a thermochemical process — and densification, the wood is made more energy dense. The product, fuel pellets, can be used at power stations and in boilers and cement kilns as an alternative to coal.

2011-07-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Studies in on mountain pine beetle populations

You might have felt as if this past winter almost killed you, but it did manage to kill off some of the mountain pine beetle populations.

The lack of chinooks was good news for reducing mountain pine beetle (MPB).

Mountain pine beetle populations experienced varying degrees of over-winter survival in Alberta in 2010-11, ranging from moderate to high survival in the northwest and central parts of the province to declining populations along the eastern edge of the infestation and in the southwest.

2011-07-19T07:01:00.001-07:00

Studies in on mountain pine beetle populations

2011-07-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

Rancher questions logging policies

The B.C. Cattlemen’s Association and the NDP forest critic have lined up behind one Big Creek rancher who believes the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations’ policies for logging in the area are extreme and damaging his livelihood.

Randy Saugstad says during the spring months run off due to nearby clearcuts wreaked havoc on his operation.

He blames forestry legislation, the pine beetle epidemic and a push to cut beetle-kill trees while they are still economically viable, and the economy for what he’s seen occur on nearby Crown land.

2011-07-13T20:05:00.001-07:00

Mountain pine beetle numbers down in southwestern Alberta

The winter was hard on mountain pine beetles throughout southwestern Alberta, with low survival rates recorded by the province.

Areas outside the national park were tracked by Sustainable Resource Development, and found while milder temperatures allowed beetles to survive more readily in the northwestern area of the province, colder weather further south helped slow their spread.

"I suspect that in the south they had a combination of cold temperatures and not enough snow on the ground," said Dr. Allan Carroll, an associate professor in the Department of Forest Sciences at the University of British Columbia.

2011-07-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Beetle survives winter, minister wants federal help

The effect of last winter on mountain pine beetles was disappointingly small and it's time for the whole country to contribute to fighting them, says Mel Knight, the Sustainable Resource Minister.

In audio clips released along with a press release Thursday, July 8, Knight said, "What I am looking for now is some consideration from our neighbouring provinces to the east particularly Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario and the federal government."

There needs to be in my opinion an understanding, and I believe there is an understanding that once the pine beetles actually breach what we think is an opportunity here for us to create a beetle sink in this part of Alberta, control and manage these beetles over the next decade or so and bring them down to numbers that we can manage, we are going to have an understanding that there is a major threat to the boreal forest across Canada.

2011-07-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

Pine beetle a serious concern in Alberta: SRD

According to a survey done by Sustainable Resource Development Alberta, north-western Alberta's Mountain Pine Beetle population is on the rise.

Surveys took place from May to mid-June at 249 sites, and 1,624 trees across the province.

These surveys showed high to extremely high survival in half of the sites, and moderately high survival in the rest, and this does not take into account beetles flying in from British Columbia and other areas of Alberta.

2011-07-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

Beetle mortality rates updated

The survival rate of the mountain pine beetle in southwest Alberta — including the Cochrane area — was the lowest in the province, according to results from mortality surveys released July 7.

But officials warn the fight in this area is not over while regions in the north face increased infestations.

“There are some small pockets of good news on the mountain pine beetle front lines this year, but overall the infestations remain a challenge to Alberta and we must continue our aggressive action to protect forest health in the province,” said Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight in a release.

2011-07-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

Inexpensive alternative in beetle-kill lumber

The gradual recovery of the building and remodeling industries is being slowed by high prices for lumber. However, there is a plentiful, sustainable alternative in beetle-kill wood that needs more government and consumer support.

The US Census Bureau reported 20 percent more new construction in March 2010 over March 2009. However, Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction trade group, reported higher costs for materials for all that new construction.

Lumber prices jumped 11 percent in the first quarter of 2010, and 24 percent from March 2009 to March 2010. Random Lengths, which closely tracks North American lumber prices and sets futures prices, releases a weekly average price for 1,000 board-feet of lumber. The price reached $353 on April 16, the highest price since May 2006.

2011-07-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Bugs a growing threat to forests, US reports

Marauding insects have become a leading threat to the nation's forests over the past decade, a problem made worse by drought and a warming climate, a federal report says.

Bark beetles, engraver beetles and gypsy moths are the primary culprits behind a threefold increase in forestland mortality caused by insect attacks between 2003 and 2007, according to a U.S. Forest Service report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The volume of forests in the lower 48 states killed by bugs totaled 37 million acres during the period, up from 12 million during the previous five years. Millions of additional acres have perished since.

Photos

2011-07-08T17:32:00.002-07:00

Some success against Alberta’s pine Beetle

Alberta had some success this winter holding the line on the mountain pine beetle, but is looking for help to keep the rapacious, forest-killing critter from going national.

“The initial attack on this thing is a provincial responsibility,” Mel Knight, minister of sustainable resource development, told a news conference Thursday.

“But as we look at the map and see the potential for these beetles to move across boundaries and get into the northern boreal forest, there’s going to have to be more effort applied.”

2011-07-08T17:32:00.001-07:00

Beetles winning battle

The Peace County is experiencing a ballooning Mountain Pine Beetle population according to Sustainable Resource Development data.

Over-winter mortality survey results released Thursday show Grande Prairie and the majority of northwestern Alberta are in the midst of a growing population of the tiny beetle.

"The areas around Grande Prairie and then moving north in through the Peace Country and all the way up even into (the) Rainbow Lake area, overall, there was a higher rate of beetle success in this area," said SRD senior forest health manager Mike Undershultz. "This indicates an increasing population."

2011-07-08T17:31:00.002-07:00

Alberta sees mixed results in pine beetle battle

Alberta reported mixed results on Thursday in its battle with the mountain pine beetle, with six million hectares of forest in the western Canadian province susceptible to attack.

Milder winter temperatures allowed more beetles to survive in northwestern Alberta, which also remained at risk of continued migration of beetles from British Columbia, Alberta's Sustainable Resource Development Ministry said.

The situation remained stable in central Alberta.

2011-07-08T17:31:00.001-07:00

Alberta government wants other provinces and Ottawa to help fight pine beetle infestation

It’s time for the federal government and other provinces to help Alberta hold the line against the mountain pine beetle, Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight says.

“This is an extremely serious situation for Alberta and it’s getting to be an issue that’s of serious concern and high risk to the boreal forest east of us as well,” Knight said Thursday.

“We are going to ask for this to be looked at as a bit of a shared responsibility for us to manage this thing inside of Alberta to the best of our ability.”

2011-06-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

Wood Rush: the demand for bio-fuel needs to be handled correctly

WHO IS managing British Columbia’s forests?

On a return trip from Vancouver in mid-April my wife and I talked about the state of our forests and the communities that were once dependent upon them. Many smaller hamlets and villages from Yale to Terrace showed serious signs of decay as a result of the poor forest economy, some from a declining tourism industry others because of a change in agriculture production. It was strange passing so many old and familiar landmarks, cafes, motels, and other businesses closed or boarded up. In contrast very little of the natural landscapes have changed in the Fraser and Thompson River canyons. Few logging clear cuts were seen and both river environments were spectacular.

It was depressing seeing the beetle killed pine along Highways 97 and 16 and visualizing the area affected being replaced by large clear cuts. 

2011-06-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

We need a new vision to manage B.C.’s forests

The last time there was a broad public dialogue on forest policy in B.C. was during the Pearse Royal Commission in 1976.

Since that time, we have experienced an unprecedented mountain pine beetle epidemic, the Kelowna and Lillooet firestorms, the War of the Woods in Clayoquot Sound, and a decline in the traditional forest products sector. It is time for rural and urban communities, first nations, professionals, conservationists, recreationists and resource users to work toward a vision that will sustain B.C.’s forests as a source of wonder, pride and economic well-being for future generations.

The public owns more than 90 per cent of B.C.’s forests. These forests are an endowment that has supported generations of British Columbians, including first nations since time immemorial. During the settlement period, traditional burning practices were replaced by commercial timber harvesting. Instead of letting wildfires burn and rejuvenate the forest, the Forest Service put them out as quickly as possible. 

2011-06-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Life Connected

Cross Homestake Pass on I-90, or hike into Beehive Basin north of Big Sky, and you’ll see a predominance of dead trees, their needles a vivid coppery color. Mountain pine beetles, the cause of much of this mortality, are native to the Rocky Mountains, and are part of lodgepole pine forests’ natural life cycle. Historically, the beetles have also affected ponderosa, sugar, and western white pines, and two 20th century beetle epidemics killed whitebark pines. All of these species recovered.

Since 2000 however, scientists from Colorado to British Columbia have recorded a significant rise in beetlekilled whitebark pine, in subalpine ecosystems. While the percentage of forest death varies between ranges, this epidemic, combined with the invasive white pine blister rust, has caused unprecedented mortality.

“While, historically, climatic conditions in high elevation whitebark pine habitats have prevented sustained mountain pine beetle outbreaks, today anthropogenic global warming appears to be allowing outbreak populations to expand into these previously inhospitable areas,” according to a 2001 paper on by whitebark experts Jesse Logan and James Powell. 

2011-06-12T10:27:00.001-07:00

Bioenergy from Beetle-wood

Economic heartache and headache—that’s what mountain pine beetle (MPB) initially represented for the forest industry in Canada’s West. But beetle-killed wood also represents an avenue for governments and companies in British Columbia and Alberta to move forward with biomass energy projects. And if conditions change in Alberta, there could be a lot more going on in this arena in the future. 

While beetle-killed wood bioenergy projects are booming in British Columbia (see the cover story of our January/February 2010 issue; www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca/content/view/1555/), there are several reasons why there’s only a small amount of activity in Alberta at the present time. For one, the area of MPB infestation is much smaller in Alberta than in British Columbia, a fact everyone hopes will remain true going forward. In addition, bioenergy projects using beetle-killed wood in Alberta have yet to take off because it’s just so much farther to transport pellets or other forms of bioenergy to overseas markets than it is from British Columbia.

“Mountain pine beetle arrived about 10 years ago in the south of Alberta (south of Highway 1) and about 5 years ago in the north,” notes Duncan MacDonnell, a public affairs officer at Alberta’s Ministry of Sustainable Resource Development (SRD). The south also faced infestations in the 1940s and late 1970s. In west-central Alberta (the so-called “wood basket” of the province, where pine is very plentiful), the beetle arrived from the Prince George, British Columbia, area through wind-flight in 2006, and then again in 2009.

2011-06-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

Is the Sawtooth a tinderbox? National recreations area faces fire threat of beetle-killed trees

The Sawtooth National Recreation Area is preparing for a possibly heightened fire season this year, due to an overabundance of dead trees.

Many consider the mountain pine beetle’s attack on SNRA forests to have crested. But while the beetles may be leaving, the trees they killed remain.

These dead trees are falling over. And according to recent research, they can ignite up to three times faster than the green needles on a healthy, living tree. 

2011-06-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

Mountain pine beetle activity may impact snow accumulation and melt, says CU-Boulder study

A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates the infestation of trees by mountain pine beetles in the high country across the West could potentially trigger earlier snowmelt and increase water yields from snowpack that accumulates beneath affected trees.

Led by CU-Boulder geological sciences department doctoral student Evan Pugh, the study was undertaken near Grand Lake, Colo., adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park, an area that has been devastated by mountain pine beetle attacks in recent years. Mountain pine beetles have killed more than 4 million acres of lodgepole pine trees in Colorado and southern Wyoming since 1996, the most severe outbreak on record.

Pugh and his team monitored eight pairs of tree stands, each pair consisting of one live stand and one dead stand roughly an acre each in size and located adjacent to each other, sharing the same topography, elevation and slope. The team monitored the two distinct phases of pine beetle tree death during the three-year study -- the "red phase" in which dead trees still retained red needles, and the "gray phase" in which all of the tree needles and some small branches had been shed, said Pugh.

2011-05-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

How Lodgepole Pines Protect Their Kind Against Fire, Mountain Pine Beetles Infestation

As mountain pine beetles march across the forests of western North America, these insects may kill millions of pine trees during a single outbreak. A rise in overall temperatures over the past several years has increased the range of mountain pine beetles, resulting in an epidemic and possibly making this mountain pine beetle infestation the largest forest-insect blight to occur in North America.

Dr. Francois Teste and colleagues from the University of Alberta in Canada have been investigating the effect of mountain pine beetle outbreaks on lodgepole pines in British Columbia. Teste and colleagues have discovered that seeds from cones on the forest floor may provide a viable seed bank for lodgepole pine regeneration following forest destruction by mountain pine beetles. Their research is published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Botany.

Lodgepole pines, a variety of the pine species Pinus contorta, are a serotinous species -- the seeds are only released from the cones in response to specific environmental conditions, in this case fire, rather than at the time of seed maturation. The seed bank of lodgepole pines is found in closed cones, which generally are located in the canopy. Following a mountain pine beetle outbreak, dead trees with canopy cones may remain standing for 10 to 15 years. However, scientists have observed a considerable increase in closed cones on the forest floor due to an increase in branch breakage after tree death. The viability of these canopy and forest-floor seeds and the likelihood that they will be able to contribute to forest regeneration has not been known.

2011-05-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

Massive Canadian fires linked with beetles, climate change

Wildfires in Canada have burned 909 percent more than the average number of acres this year, mainly due to a number of blazes in northern Alberta that have been described as “freakish firestorms” by forestry officials.

Some scientists in Canada are conjecturing that the unusually large fires are linked with global warming and the pine beetle infestation that has spread through millions of acres of boreal forests.

According to the Canadian Forest Service‘s latest wildfire update, about 490,000 acres have burned, with 980 fires burning this week, well above the average number. More than half the fire burning are in Alberta; in most other parts of Canada the fire activity is described as light.
Fire danger remains low in British Columbia due to moist conditions, but is rated as high across big parts of Alberta, where a province-wide fire ban is in effect. With little precipitation in the forecast, the fire danger is expected to increase in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. 

2011-05-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

More and More, the Boreal Will Burn

Wildfires ripping through Alberta's boreal forest or what government officials call "freakish" firestorms are really a snapshot of how warming global temperatures and intensified insect infestations will change the nation's boreal forest, say scientists.

In the last week nearly 100 wildfires, battled by 1,000 forest fighters, have shut in billions of dollars worth of oil and gas facilities and forced the evacuation of 2,000 oil workers from Fort McMurray to Peace River.

One raging inferno, driven by 100 kilometre winds, destroyed a third of the community of Slave Lake north of Edmonton. That smoky region is also chock full of dead trees killed by the mountain pine beetle, another harbinger of changing global weather patterns. 

2011-05-14T20:44:00.001-07:00

Web-based marketing, wave of the future

Coun. Bill Hadden is keen about a new marketing program called the Bridges Project, and it's something he believes is the wave of the future for small tenure owners.

He notes it's an initiative of the province's three Beetle Action Committees, the British Columbia Community Forest Association, the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations, and Community Futures.

It will be a web-based marketing tool for community forests and woodlots owners to connect log sales with local saw millers.

2011-05-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

BC Government Commits Additional $12 Million to Geoscience BC

Geoscience BC has received additional $12 million in new funding from BC Government to support mineral and energy geoscience in British Columbia.

Geoscience BC is an industry-led, not-for-profit organization that conducts exploration geoscience in partnership with industry, academia, government, First Nations and communities to fund applied geoscience projects with the objective to attract mineral and oil & gas exploration to British Columbia.

Geoscience BC’s mandate includes the collection, interpretation, and delivery of geoscience data and expertise, to promote investment in resource exploration and development in British Columbia.

2011-05-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

Trees killed by Pine Beetles create more dangerous fires

In areas where many trees have been killed by pine beetle infestations, forest fires can spread more quickly, new research says. The dead trees are much drier than live wood, as are the red needles. The way fire behaves in areas struck by pine beetles, such as much of British Columbia and Montana, is changing dramatically in a short time.

The trees essentially become standing fuel, and, just as anyone who has ever started a campfire knows, dry wood burns faster than wet. Though this fact may seem obvious, researchers stress that they need to better understand how the trees burn to create more effective fire management plans, especially since the mountain pine beetle's territory seems to be spreading east. They also need to understand how the percentage of live and dead trees may affect the behavior of wildfires, to develop more specialized plans.

Flames from beetle-struck trees can reach 200 to 300 feet, and fires can spread to three acres in roughly two minutes--or over 100 acres in an hour--according to fire analyst Sonny Stiger, says Eve Byron in the Helena Independent Record. One ember from a dead tree can travel a quarter mile, and if it hits another dead tree is likely to ignite it, says forest service ecologist Matt Jolly, writes Matt Volz in an Associated Press article. Fire fighters must also deal with more large trees snapping above them, potentially blocking escape routes.

2011-05-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Firefighters warn new fires burn in mysterious ways

Fire officials in a tri-county area said they’re seeing extreme fire behavior in areas with trees killed by the mountain pine beetle.

Sonny Stiger, a fire behavior analyst, told a group gathered in Helena Wednesday for a forum on the impact of the rice-size beetles, that he’s seeing flame lengths of 200 to 300 feet in places they wouldn’t expect it; they’re experiencing unusual embers being thrown farther ahead of fires and groups of treetops torching; and ponderosa pines’ low-hanging dead branches are creating ladder fuels that allow blazes to spread more rapidly than in the past.

“The kind of things we’re dealing with is one fire grew to three acres in two minutes, 10 to 15 acres in the next eight minutes — that’s moving — and over 100 acres in the first hour,” Stiger said. “So we are experiencing unusual, extreme fire behavior now.”

2011-05-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

Knowledge gaps abound in beetle-kill forest fires

Researchers are taking the first steps toward closing wide knowledge gaps in the behavior of wildfires in millions of acres of Western forests devastated by the mountain pine beetle epidemic, a University of Idaho professor said Wednesday.

Over the past decade, the rice-sized beetle has decimated some 9 million acres of forest in the Rocky Mountain West and nearly five times that in Canada. But there is relatively little scientific research into how fire behavior changes in forests with beetle-killed trees, particularly in stands where there is a mix of live and dead trees.

Research has been slow in developing because of the difficulty to conduct fire experiments in forests near populated areas, said professor Jeffrey Hicke. There also are disagreements between existing studies because they often failed to consider the same criteria, he said.

2011-05-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

New study shows beetle-killed trees ignite faster

The red needles of a tree killed in a mountain pine beetle attack can ignite up to three times faster than the green needles of a healthy tree, new research into the pine beetle epidemic has found.

The findings by U.S. Forest Service ecologist Matt Jolly are being used by fellow ecologist Russ Parsons to develop a new model that will eventually aid firefighters who battle blazes in the tens of millions of acres from Canada to Colorado where forest canopies have turned from green to red from the beetle outbreak.

The new model incorporates a level of detail and physics that doesn't exist in current models, and it is much more advanced in predicting how a wildfire in a beetle-ravaged region will behave, Parsons said.

2011-04-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Power on Wheels

Utilizing a design pioneered by downdraft gasification system developer Community Power Corp., Montana researcher Brian Kerns has developed a mobile biomass gasifier, after collaborating with the company to integrate their design with his own ideas.

So far, his work has resulted in a 25-kilowatt per hour system that can easily be transported to areas where there is a need to manage woody biomass waste, such as pine beetle-killed wood. “Instead of gathering the biomass materials and bringing them to a centralized plant, which is the norm, we wanted to do the opposite,” Kerns says.

That strategy provides several benefits, including avoiding feedstock transportation and storage costs. The system, which is enclosed on a semi-trailer platform, can be set up and running within an hour.

2011-04-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

Mountain Pine Beetle Perched to Move Eastward

Now that the mountain pine beetle has chewed through some 70,000 square miles of forest in the western states and Canada, it seems the voracious pest is expanding its palate. Beetles in Canada were recently discovered attacking jack pines (Pinus banksiana) for the first time, a break from their usual diet of lodgepole (Pinus contorta), according to a study published this month in the journal Molecular Ecology. With this switch in taste, the beetle could be setting up to cross the continent via the vast Canadian boreal forest, putting trees on the East Coast at risk.

Up to this point, the mountain pine beetle has munched mainly on lodgepole-dominated forests in the western U.S. and Canada. But at the eastern edge of Canada’s lodgepole range, hybrid lodgepole-jack pines may have helped the critters switch to the eastern species. Scientists from the University of Alberta who authored the new study were able to verify that purebred jack pines as far east as Alberta’s Slave Lake had fallen to beetle attack.

The pine beetle’s leap to jack pine has been anticipated—indeed feared—by biologists for a decade. High Country News contributing editor Michelle Nijhuis reported on that prediction in 2004 in her article, ”Global Warming’s Unlikely Harbingers.”

2011-04-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

Provinces join ranks to stop eastward march of mountain pine beetle

It’s no longer a matter of if, but when the destructive mountain pine beetle will spread east of Alberta through Canada’s northern boreal forest, say provincial forestry experts in Manitoba and Ontario.

These provinces, along with Saskatchewan, are stepping up efforts to reduce the insect’s anticipated damage. A recent study confirming that, in Alberta, the beetle has jumped species from lodgepole pine to jack pine trees – the most common type of pine in the boreal forest – has amplified concerns and stirred new calls for the federal government to play a stronger role in implementing a national forestry pest strategy.

Ottawa earmarked nearly $13-million in 2006 to develop a pest plan, but that funding has been spent. Responsibility for the strategy now sits with a working group of the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers.

2011-04-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

Pine beetle could chomp eastward

A new study finds mountain pine beetles have moved from Lodgepole pine to Jack pine trees, giving them a new opportunity to spread across Canada.

Alberta researchers recently confirmed that the baneful mountain pine beetle has infested a different type of tree that would allow the pest to spread into Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

University of Alberta scientists have discovered that the tiny beetles can jump from the Lodgepole pines of western Canada to boreal forest Jack pines.

2011-04-22T08:35:00.001-07:00

Western pine beetles munch eastward

Now that the mountain pine beetle has chewed through some 70,000 square miles of forest in the western States and Canada, it seems the voracious pest is expanding its palate. Beetles in Canada were recently discovered attacking jack pines (Pinus banksiana) for the first time, a break from their usual diet of lodgepole (Pinus contorta), according to a study [PDF] published this month in the journal Molecular Ecology. With this switch in taste, the beetle could be setting up to cross the continent via the vast Canadian boreal forest, putting trees on the East Coast at risk.

Up to this point, the mountain pine beetle has munched mainly on lodgepole pine-dominated forests in the western U.S. and Canada. But at the eastern edge of Canada's lodgepole range, hybrid lodgepole-jack pines may have helped the critters switch to the eastern species. Scientists from the University of Alberta who authored the new study were able to verify that purebred jack pines as far east as Alberta's Slave Lake had fallen to beetle attack.

The pine beetle's leap to jack pine has been anticipated -- indeed feared -- by biologists for a decade. High Country News contributing editor Michelle Nijhuis reported on that prediction in 2004 in her article, "Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers".

2011-04-21T11:44:00.001-07:00

Construction: Wood chucks old image

For all of modern history, we have relied on steel and concrete in the construction of multi-storey buildings, because both materials are sturdy, reliable and cheap. Michael Green, a principal at MGB Architecture in Vancouver, argues there is another option: wood. "When I say that, people's jaws drop," he says. "They think I'm crazy."

Green has been working on a report for the past few months to demonstrate the feasibility of replacing concrete and steel with timber in the construction of highrises. The full report, due out in the coming weeks, will show it is possible to build up to 30 storeys using timber.

The report is sponsored and currently under review by the Wood Enterprise Coalition, an industry association established by the British Columbia government last year with $1.75 million in funding. The interest from both government and industry in the concept is largely economic. The forestry sector has been in decline for years, and any new use for wood (particularly the 15-million hectares of trees killed by the mountain pine beetle in the province) could mean salvation.

2011-04-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

$3M More To Mitigate Pine Beetle Impact In Region

The Omineca Beetle Action Coalition has received a commitment from the provincial government on $1-million dollars a year over the next three years to continue its efforts to combat the economic impacts of the mountain pine beetle.

The Ministry of Jobs, Tourism, and Innovation has announced a total of $9-million dollars over three years for the Omineca, Cariboo-Chilcotin, and Southern Interior.

OBAC Chair, Don Bassermann says, "This funding means the coalition can continue to implement the strategies and projects that have been so important to this region, helping us to achieve the long-term goals that will provide strength and resilience across all sectors and communities in the region."

2011-04-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

Mountain pine beetle battle funded

Last Friday (April 15) in Williams Lake, the B.C. Liberal government announced it is continuing to provide funding, with a $9-million infusion, to help the province’s three beetle action coalitions (BAC) continue their front-line battle against the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

However, this is the same funding program that was announced by then premier Gordon Campbell during last year’s Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention.

When he stepped down as B.C. Liberal leader a short time later, there was some confusion and concern as to whether the funding promise was still on the table.

2011-04-16T10:42:00.001-07:00

$9 million for fight against mountain pine beetle

The Province is continuing its fight against the mountain pine beetle epidemic with a $9-million infusion to help B.C.'s three beetle action coalitions continue their front-line battle.

The three coalitions have been developing and funding projects to help mitigate the current and anticipated economic, environmental and social impacts of the pine beetle epidemic. Now, the Southern Interior, Omineca and Cariboo-Chilcotin beetle action coalitions will each receive $3 million over three years to continue these regional efforts.

The mountain pine beetle has already affected an estimated 17.5 million hectares of pine forest, affecting economies and livelihoods all over the province. Since 2001, the Province has invested more than $756 million to battle the mountain pine beetle, mitigate future impacts and promote regional economic development.

2011-04-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

Will the Pine Beetle Cross the Continent?

The mountain pine beetle is one step closer to crossing North America and turning eastern pine forests into the same bleak landscapes that have scarred the Mountain West in recent years.

Some scientists say it is inevitable that the tree-killing insect will spread all the way east via a corridor of jack pines across northern Canada's boreal forest. The question is: When? Others are more skeptical.

Either way, researchers have now shown that the beetle has invaded a new species of pine on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, with potentially serious consequences. 