Mountain pine beetles shown on top of a blue-stained pine stump. About 3 million pine trees in Alberta are already infested...and will be turning red and dying this year throughout our province - from the Crowsnest Pass to Banff and Kananaskis Country, Sundre, Rocky Mountain House, Grande Prairie, Grande Cache, Fox Creek and other areas.
- Photo courtesy of Alberta Sustainable Development.
"Six million hectares of pine forest in Alberta is susceptible"
- Dan Lux, Mountain Pine Beetle Coordinator, Alberta Sustainable
Resource Development.
BREAKING NEWS:
July 20, 2007 - The AFPA responds to a July 19 article in the National Post "Rail gains from beetle funding". The Letter to the Editor from AFPA Executive Director Neil Shelly, reads as follows:
Letter to Editor:
The National Post
RE: Rail gains from beetle funding by Nathan VanderKlippe July 19, 2007
The Alberta forest industry is deeply troubled by the report that Federal funding designated to combat the Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak will be utilized to improve rail service in British Columbia . We are especially concerned because north-west Alberta has now become the frontline in the battle to contain this epidemic.
With more than 2.5 million pines trees infested in northern Alberta last year alone by an overflight of beetles from British Columbia, our industry and provincial government have invested millions of dollars and significant other resources to deal with the situation. So far, no federal assistance has been provided in Alberta to support front line Mountain Pine Beetle control efforts. Alberta pine trees are dying and dead, and the next generation of beetles are now emerging and looking for new pine trees to infest and kill.
Just east of the current Alberta front line in the beetle infestation is a great forest buffet called the Boreal Forest. If the mountain pine beetle gets a foothold in the Boreal there is a good chance it will eat its way clear across our northern forests to the Atlantic Ocean.
Through a concentrated and dedicated effort by all parties, we stand a fighting chance of holding, or at least minimizing the damage to the ecosystem and local communities, as a result of the beetle outbreak. The use of funds earmarked to combat Mountain Pine Beetle for private rail interests instead is not acceptable. Don’t play politics with the health of Canada’s forests. Use the money allocated for mountain pine beetle control into actually fighting the beetle’s eastward advance.
Sincerely,
Neil Shelly, P.Eng
Executive Director
Alberta Forest Products Association, Edmonton
On April 25, 2007 the Government of Alberta announced $50 million in emergency funding to continue agressive action against the mountain pine beetle infestation in the province.
In the news release, Hon. Ted Morton, Minister of Sustainable Resource Development said, "The front line in the war against mountain pine beetle has moved from B.C. to Alberta. This emergency funding gives us the resources we need to continue the fight against this threat to our forests."
On April 11, 2007 the Government of Alberta issued the following Order in Council related to the mountain pine beetle infestation.
O.C. 177/2007
April 11, 2007
WHEREAS significant infestations of mountain pine beetle continue to be detected along the eastern slopes in an area from Grande Cache to Fox Creek, Slave Lake to Grande Prairie, and north into the Peace Country, in the Spray Lakes Area and in the Crowsnest Pass Area.
THEREFORE, the Lieutenant Governor in Council declares that an emergency exists in the form of extraordinary losses, damages and costs resulting from mountain pine beetle infestations with respect to the 2007-2008 fiscal year.
Recommended by: Minister of Sustainable Resource Development Authority: Fiscal Responsibility Act (sections 2.1 and 4)
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The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a small insect, about the size of a grain of rice, endemic to forests in Western North America and historically has been the most destructive western bark beetle species. The mountain pine beetle and its primary host, the lodgepole pine tree (Pinus contorta) have always coexisted as a natural part of the forest ecosystem.
Traditionally, the beetle only successfully attacked large, overmature and stressed lodgepole pine trees, contributing to the natural process of succession in forested landscapes. Winter temperatures in the range of -35C to -40C act as one of the primary natural population controls. The process of global warming has reduced the regularity of these extreme cold climatic events, resulting in an explosion in the population within the interior of British Columbia.
Current estimates suggest that, in British Columbia, 8.7 million hectares of pine forests, representing 400 million cubic metres of pine timber are infested by mountain pine beetle. To put this in an Alberta context, 400 million cubic metres of pine timber represents the total allowable harvest of all coniferous species (spruce-pine-fir) for the province of Alberta for about 29 years.
In the summer of 2006, carried by the strong westerly winds, millions of mountain pine beetles were carried over the Rocky Mountain range from north-east British Columbia into north-west Alberta - Grande Prairie, Grande Cache, Fox Creek and area. At the same time, the mountain pine beetle is expanding its range in south-west Alberta in two distinct areas: the first is in the area from Banff National Park east along the Bow Corridor into Kananaskis Country, heading toward Cochrane, Bragg Creek and Calgary; the second is in the Crowsnest Pass region of southern Alberta.
Alberta's forest industry is working closely with the Government of Alberta to inact aggressive and quick mitigation and control strategies. This includes changing winter harvesting plans this past year (2006-2007 harvesting season) to harvest infested pine stands and those deemed most susceptible to a mountain pine beetle attack in the coming year.
For more information on the mountain pine beetle, the AFPA has produced a ForestInfo factsheet on the mountain pine beetle, available as a pdf file at the bottom of this page, or you can check out these websites:
Alberta Mountain Pine Beetle
Information from Alberta Sustainable Resource Development
Mountain Pine Beetles in British Columbia
Canadian Forest Service Pine Beetle Information
Parks Canada – Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative
Federal Mountain Pine Beetle Program
Mountain Pine Beetle Information Network
Community-based coalitions
Grande Alberta Economic Region mountain pine beetle page
Caribou-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition
Omineca Beetle Action Coalition
Research and Publications
Managing the Economic Impacts of Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreaks in Alberta - Foothills Model Forest Case Study. An information bulletin prepared by the Western Centre for Economic Research, University of Alberta
Educational Resources
Inside Education, a nonprofit society that provides natural resources and environment education focused on forests, water, energy and related topics, has created a FREE teachers guide for Grade 7-9 science called "Mountain Pine Beetle Mania". It has beendesigned to bring the biology and issues surrounding mountain pine beetle into the spotlight. The guide is prepared in both English and French. It can be downloaded from the Inside Education website. The English version is available as a pdf file at the bottom of this page.
Media Reports
Edmonton Journal archives of mountain pine beetle stories
Photo Gallery from Edmonton Journal - narrated by Paul Marck, pictures by Bruce Edwards
Calgary Herald archives of mountain pine beetle stories
National Post archives of mountain pine beetle stories
Keeping the Bugs at Bay - Alberta Venture story (June 2006 volume 10 issue 5)