EDMONTON – The Alberta winter that was cold at just the right times in the right places has put a dent in the population of mountain pine beetles, provincial officials announced Wednesday.
It’s the first time since the infestation began in 2006 that Alberta’s winter has put a dent in the population of hardy pests.
Field surveys which in May began drilling bark samples from 1,266 trees at 229 sties in pine forests show that except for a few hot spots in the north and west, the survival rate of the beetles was pushed back to 2007 levels, Sustainable Resource Development Minister Mel Knight said.
“We do have a very good news story in front of us for the province of Alberta and not only the province,” he said.
“I think our neighbours to the east of us and the rest of the Canadian provinces that have pine stands would also take an interest in this.”
But he said the provincial government wasn’t relying on its good fortune.
It will be committing $15 million in emergency funding this year on top of $5 million in base funding to attack the pine beetles in southwest Alberta and in central Alberta to the eastern edge of the infestation.
Crews will remove infested single trees, harvest stands and use controlled burns to prevent the spread.
He said realistically the province is looking at “at least a 20-year program” of control work to get beetle numbers down to historic numbers.
The winter kill is a rare bit of good news for the province’s $9-billion forestry industry and its 38,000 jobs. The beetles threaten the health of six million hectares of Alberta forests that contain pine trees.
The rice grain-sized beetles flew into Alberta from British Columbia in 2006 and another inflight in the summer of 2009 sent them as far east as Slave Lake and Entwistle.
After infesting up to three-quarters of British Columbia’s mature lodgepole pines, swarms of mountain pine beetles hitched rides on winds in 2006 and 2009 carrying them deep into north-central Alberta, west and southwest Alberta. They have dug in against both frigid winters and attempts to slow their spread by cutting down dead or dying trees or using prescribed burns to block them.
The beetles tunnel under the bark and lay their eggs, leaving a fungus that turns green needles red as they bore through the tree’s vascular system.
When the eggs hatch the bore tunnels under the bark and spend the winter protected from the cold. They resume feeding in the spring and develop into beetles by July, which emerge through the bark to attack more mature pines.
The fungus and the feeding of the grub-like larvae can kill a tree within a month.
Those leading the fight against the pest hope every winter is severe enough to kill significant quantities of the beetle, but the larvae can survive -35 C temperatures for several days.
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