The pine beetle's surprising northern foray

[CHIMO]

GRANDE PRARIE, ALTA. — They blew by the millions into the dense forests surrounding this thriving northwestern Alberta community on a strong Prairie wind in July.

There were so many that a local dairy farmer thought he was hearing rain tapping on his barn's tin roof.

Instead, it was an invasion of hungry mountain pine beetles, black grain-sized insects that have already devoured billions of mature lodgepole pine trees in British Columbia's Interior forests.

“We just had this massive blow-over from the Prince George area. . . .We never thought they would hit us this hard, this fast,” said Pat Wearmouth, a senior forester with Weyerhaeuser Co. Ltd. The giant forestry company is scrambling to help control the infestation, which has the potential to keep marching east through Canada's vast northern boreal forest.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061018.wxbeetle19GTA/BNStory/Science/home

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Brought to you by the same friendly interests who brought you

global warming.

[jody]

2. Canada might get more insect invasions as temps increase. I've

worked on large stands of Slash Pine in Georgia where damage was massive from the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann).

I hope some of the dead timber can be harvested with just minor damage to the eco system.

[hatrack]

3. "No one could have anticipated beetles causing massive forest die-offs."

Better study this a while - wouldn't want anyone's economic nipple to get caught in any regulatory zippers, now would we?