FEATURE - Beetles threaten huge swath of Canadian forest
Date: 07-Sep-01
Country: CANADA
Author: Allan Dowd
Thousands of trees are infested with mountain pine beetles in an exploding infestation that threatens to destroy more than C$4 billion ($2.6 billion) in timber in an area dependent on the forestry industry.
"It's like a (forest) fire," said Leo Rankin, a British Columbia Forest Service entomologist and long-time veteran of the bug battle who admits even he has been shocked by the size of the latest outbreak.
"Unlike a fire it doesn't kill people, but it can kill your economy," Rankin said as he hiked up a hill outside Williams Lake, a small logging city about 345 miles (550 km) northeast of Vancouver.
It does not take long during a walk for Rankin to find an infected lodgepole pine. Using his ax to cut a small piece of bark, he reveals the tree's attackers - tiny, black beetles that have begun to lay eggs.
The eggs will become larvae that eat the wood just under the bark the tree needs to supply itself with water and nutrients. Nearly a year after the eggs are laid, the newly hatched beetles will fly away to find new host trees.
By the time the beetles leave, the tree will be dead, its green needles turned the color of rust. "It basically just girdles the tree," Rankin said.
Some estimates say more than 1.25 million acres (500,000 hectares) of pine in British Columbia have been infested.
BEETLES AN OLD PROBLEM
Mountain pine beetles have been around for thousands of years, but their populations have been kept in check by extreme winter cold that kills the larvae and by forest fires that destroy the infected trees before the beetles can spread.
But the Caribou Region has not seen a major bug-killing cold snap for several years and the fires that once raced through the woods each summer are now fought by a multimillion-dollar control effort.
The beetles usually attack older trees rather than younger ones that have stronger natural defenses. Unfortunately for the logging industry, the older trees are also most prized for their lumber.
The tiny beetles not only kill the trees, but they also carry a fungus that creates a blue stain in much of the uneaten wood. The stain does not damage the structural integrity, but makes it harder to sell the lumber for aesthetic reasons.
The timber industry views the infestation as a disaster and wants C$600 million in federal aid to deal with the outbreak, which it says is the biggest ever seen in Canada.
"We're not looking for assistance because of the beetles. The beetles have always been here. It's the scale (of the infestation) that warrants federal intervention," said Greg Jadrzyk, of the Northern Forest Products Association.
The industry says the best way to battle the bug is to remove infected trees now. It will slow the infestation's growth and allow loggers to salvage the timber from already dead trees before they collapse and decay.
ENVIRONMENTAL, TRADE PROBLEMS
Environmentalists say beetle outbreaks are a natural part of the ecosystem, and allowing a massive cut will only create forests that are susceptible to future attacks because all the trees are the same age and species.
"Dealing with today's outbreak with the future in mind is now even more critical because of the effects of global warming," the Vancouver-based David Suzuki Foundation said.
The environmentalists also worry that building new logging roads to reach the downed timber in more remote area will hurt wildlife.
British Columbia's forests are largely publicly owned. The provincial government sells logging rights to private companies through a byzantine system designed to raise revenue for the province, protect jobs and keep the industry healthy.
Cutting plans are set out years in advance, but the bug infestation has forced officials to throw much of that planning "out the window," admits Darron Campbell, a spokesman for the Forest Service in Williams Lake.
In some cases, the infested pine is not close to sawmills that can handle it. There are also serious quest
