INVASION FROM JASPER

Pine beetle population explodes

A massive and uncontrollable buildup of mountain pine beetles in Jasper National Park is starting to explode into commercially valuable forests along its boundaries.

Foresters along the park’s edge have seen a tenfold increase in beetle infestation in just months, and some scientists wonder if Parks Canada could have done more to control the invasion a few years ago.

“They decided to consider the pine beetle a ‘native disturbance agent’,” said Allan Carroll, who has studied the beetles since the late 1990s and directs the University of British Columbia’s Forest Science program. “In other words, Jasper was not intending to do much about it.”

In an emailed statement, Parks Canada said it has had a beetle management plan for the park since 2015 that includes prescribed burns and tree removal. Too little, too late, said Carroll. West Fraser Timber manages about 13,000 square kilometres along the park’s eastern edge and runs a large mill in the town of Hinton just outside the boundary. The company removed about 40,000 bug-infested trees last year.

“The number that we have been told for this area is around half a million trees,” said Richard Briand, West Fraser’s woodland manager.

For years, the park and forests to the east and south of it missed the worst of the beetle infestations that ravaged British Columbia and southern and northern Alberta. Cold kept them out.

Several unusually warm winters finally allowed the beetles to breach Jasper’s defences.

“The outbreak is probably beyond a controllable situation,” said Mike Underschulz of Alberta Agriculture. “The area around Hinton is a very great concern.” Underschulz said the eastward spread of red trees killed by pine beetles was inevitable.

Briand said West Fraser has dealt with beetles before. Harvest plans will be adjusted so the most susceptible stands are harvested first.