Beetles threaten Alberta forests, says official
© 2000 Reuters Limited
September 29, 2000
TORONTO - Mountain pine beetles in Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains pose a threat to Alberta forests unless a cold winter kills them or the outbreak is quickly brought under control, an Alberta's Environment Department official said yesterday.
Hideji Ono, manager of the department's forest health branch said: "If we allow this beetle population to expand then we maybe will see a new outbreak. Right now it's small enough that we can cut and burn, but the more the beetle numbers increase, the more difficult a solution becomes."
About 500 lodgepole pine trees, compared with only 10 in 1998, in the park in southwestern Alberta are now infested with the 0.5-centimetre (0.20-inch) long beetles, which could also spread to commercial forestry. They descend on Alberta from forests in neighbouring British Columbia about every 20 years.
Beetle outbreaks in Alberta parks have in the past been controlled by cutting and burning thousands of trees. But federal officials generally feel the ecosystem should be protected in national national parks by letting nature take its course.
Ono said he wants to cut and burn infested trees as soon as possible before the beetles mature and fly to other trees next June.
The beetles, which feed on mature lodgepole and limber pines, burrow under the bark where larvae hatch and later bore holes through the bark and move on to invest other trees. The beetle also carries a fungus that disrupts a tree's water flow.