The Canadian government has joined forces with researchers to combat a devastating infestation of mountain pine beetle.
A research partnership between Natural Resources Canada (NRC) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) will see the creation of five forest-related jobs in Prince George to help develop a research cluster in British Columbia.
The cluster, which will include researchers from NRC, UBC, provisional agencies and possibly three major forest research institutes, will identify ways of minimising the impacts of the infestation and reduce future risks of the problem.
The new jobs are part of the Canadian government’s Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative, a C$40m programme to curb the impacts of the beetle. NRC minister Herb Dhaliwal welcomed the move: “By working together, we can keep our forests strong and sustainable.”
