British Columbia’s (BC) mountain pine beetle infestation could spread nationwide following the pest’s traverse of the Rocky Mountains, a conference in Vancouver has heard.
The event, held by the University of BC and the University of Northern BC, heard that jack pine in Canada’s vast boreal forest is now under threat.
BC is felling and burning trees in remote mountain sites in an effort to halt the pest’s advance, which has crossed the mountains in localised areas.
The beetle has already munched its way through 10 million ha of pine in BC and is expected to kill 80% of 1.2 billion m3 of pine by 2013, with long-term harvests potentially falling by 5-10 million m3 per year.
Forest Opportunity BC’s executive director Alan Potter told the conference that the province could lose C$4bn-14bn worth of stumpage revenue due to the infestation.
However, forests so far affected by the beetle are not dying, due to the presence of other timber species. Fewer than 10% of trees in half the affected area have been killed.
