Study - 80% Of Mature Pine In British Columbia Dead By 2013, Thanks To Pine Beetle, Warming Winters

[hatrack]

Canada's vast boreal forest is facing the devastating threat of mountain pine beetles as early as this summer, causing widespread economic and environmental damage, warns one of the country's foremost experts on the grain-sized insects.

Last summer, a great swarm of beetles was caught in prevailing winds, blowing into Alberta and landing at the doorstep of the boreal forest. Alberta recently declared the growing pine beetle problem an emergency and has set out to cut and burn infected trees. “If the stars align and the beetles are transported long distances to the east, there is a possibility that the mountain pine beetle could get into the margins of the boreal forest in 2007,” said Allan Carroll, a research scientist with the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria. “If the beetles from last year were able to get nearly there in one go , then just given that there could be even more beetles available to one of these dispersal events, the possibility is there.”

EDIT

Pine beetles can't survive in Canada's cold weather, but several consecutive mild winters in Western Canada have resulted in the beetle problem reaching epidemic levels. Researchers suggest that by 2013, it will have killed 80 per cent of the mature pine in B.C. Dr. Carroll fears that there's not much more that can be done other than focus on early detection and removing infected trees. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency last week expanded a containment area in Nova Scotia to stop the spread of the brown spruce longhorn beetle. The beetle, a European pest that attacks dead or dying trees, was first spotted in Point Pleasant Park in Halifax. Scientists believe it came to the area in 1990 through infested wood packaging materials brought through the port there.

Meanwhile the emerald ash borer, discovered in 2002, has infected roughly a million ash trees in Southwestern Ontario. Government officials say they have been able to control another foreign species in the area, the Asian longhorned beetle, by cutting down infected trees.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070430.wbeetles30/BNStory/National/home

[GliderGuider]

1. Whew!

Good thing we're taking incandescent light bulbs off the market in 2012. I feel like we've accomplished SO MUCH toward solving the problem.

(Hmmm. Do I sound bitter?)

[hatrack]

2. Oh, not at ALL, GG . . .

I do what I can but there are still days it feels like I just replaced the washer in the kitchen sink to stop that pesky drip-drip-drip and all the while the whole basement is filling up from a broken main.