Efforts slow bark beetle advance

Aerial application of a substance used in herbal teas could limit spread of the mountain pine beetles that have been devastating lodgepole pine across the West.

Scientists for more than a decade have known that the substance, called verbenone, is released by the beetles themselves to inhibit overcrowding of host trees. What is new is evidence that the verbenone, when spread across broad areas by helicopters or other vehicles, might better disperse beetles and simulate natural beetle release.

The evidence comes from an experiment, in which helicopters were used to test flakes of the substance on plots located near Mount Shasta in northern California and in the Bitterroot Range along the Idaho-Montana border. The sites had similar tree densities and rates of infections. Half the plots were “treated” with the substance and the other half were left untreated.

Landscape-scale treatment promising for slowing beetle spread

Mountain pine beetles devastating lodgepole pine stands across the West might best be kept in check with aerial application of flakes containing a natural substance used in herbal teas that the insects release to avoid overcrowding host trees, according to a team of scientists.

Findings from the U.S. Forest Service-funded study appear in the February issue of Forest Ecology and Management. The study was conducted in California and Idaho, and showed how applications of laminated flakes containing a substance called verbenone resulted in a three-fold reduction in insect attack rates, compared to areas where they were not applied.

The technique could provide a way to treat infestations on a large scale and limit further spread into millions of acres of trees made vulnerable because of climate change, overcrowding and fires.

Pine beetle threat grows in the West

Amy Gannon, hatchet in hand, sliced a slab of bark from a lodgepole pine tree near Wolf Creek, Mont., and quickly spotted a mountain pine beetle larvae no bigger than her pinky fingernail.

"This tree's done for," said Gannon, an entomologist with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

As wildfires roar through tinder-dry forests in California, the mountain pine beetle is silently killing even more trees — hundreds of thousands of acres of towering trees, mostly lodgepole pine, according to Robert Mangold, director of Forest Health Protection for the U.S. Forest Service.

Raven Biofuels, Spectrum Energy to convert beetle-infested pines into ethanol

California-based Raven Biofuels International Corp. announced May 21 it is partnering with British Columbia-based Spectrum Energy to develop cellulosic biorefineries in British Columbia that will convert softwood infested with mountain pine beetle and other biomass into ethanol and high value furfural chemicals.

Spectrum Energy and Raven Biofuels have submitted a proposal to the provinces’ Clean Energy Fund for financial support to proceed with building the province’s first cellulosic ethanol refinery. Spectrum Energy was involved in building four lumber facilities in British Columbia and will contribute its forest industry experience to the project. The pine beetle infestation is quickly killing pine forests that cover an area the size of Texas, containing enough biomass to produce over a billion gallons of biofuels.

Native towns at risk of going up in flames

Aboriginal leaders are warning that more than 100 native communities are in danger of being ravaged by fire come spring due to the massive swath of dry, dead timber left behind by British Columbia's pine beetle outbreak.

Raising the spectre of fires and evacuations rivalling last year's infernos in Greece and California, native leaders from B.C. are in Ottawa this week urging Conservative cabinet ministers to act now.

The pine beetle damage is already wreaking havoc on native communities through forestry job losses, as well as fear that traditional methods of hunting and gathering are disappearing along with the trees. But in these remote villages, fire is the immediate worry.

"We've got a fire season approaching and the potential for a disaster to be compounded with runaway wildfires is huge. It's imminent. It's very real. And people are very worried," said Dave Porter of B.C.'s First Nations Summit, which represents a majority of aboriginal communities in the province.