CALGARY – Environment officials appear to be winning the ongoing battle against the mountain pine beetle, at least in the southern Alberta eastern slopes.
Provincial forest health officers have began checking sites where there are known infestations, usually in small clusters.
They’re looking to find how many of the destructive pests survived the winter.
From what they’ve seen so far, it appears infestation rates have slowed dramatically.
It’s believed the cold, late-fall weather over the past years has helped.
“We’ve had really early cold snaps in November, we had temperatures going to the minus 20s; the beetles didn’t have time to acclimatize,” says Bart McaNally, forest health technician.
“When that cold weather came in November, it killed a lot of the beetles.”
Two years ago, 35,000 pine trees in the southern Rocky Mountains had to be cut down and burned to control infestations.
Last year, that number dropped to $15,000 trees.
This year, provincial forestry officials have only had to destroy 200 trees infected with the mountain pine beetle.
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