Lodgepole Pine Beetle Threat

[Rosebud]

A program on TV brought to light the devastation of this insect to the conifers of BC. Global warming as given this beetle
and edge, since the colder temperatures formed a limitation on it's ability to reproduce in numbers that would be devastating
to the planet.

The program presented a fly over with nothing but dead trees for hundreds of miles. Apparently it now has spread through the valleys of BC and is now entering the boreal forest of Alberta. It is presumed that after it's natural host, the lodge-pole pine, is gone genetically similar industrial timbers like spruce and white pine will be attacked. There does not seem to be a natural barrier to it's infestation.

Another concern was of oxygen depletion of the globe, since it's contribution would be critical.

The government should launch an attack immediately. The beetle has one prime area of weakness. It must surmount an extraordinary number of barriers in order to meet it's objective. Each of these areas could be simultaneously researched by designated agencies and exploited for their potential for attack. One agency could be assigned one area so that intense uninterrupted focus could be made.

The response could be collectively applied. In this way no possibility of the beetle recovering could arise.

Areas for attack are many. Artificial male attractant pheromones could be made. Anti-fungal could be made to attack the fungus which assists in the tissue breakdown of tree. The beetle's carapace itself, and it's joint cartilage could be targeted. A spray could be applied that could be molecularly bind to the turps of the pine tree resin, (it's natural defense) to make it more corrosive.

In any case something needs to be done now.

Please send a message to the federal government to start action immediately, otherwise our children will suffer for it and it will devastate the construction industry causing the price of homes to skyrocket.

 

[tay]

Yes it was a confirming show when they overlapped the 'heat increase map' with the location of these Beetles.


As for the Federal govt doing something about it, I caught the part where they said the Feds closed that 'sciency' department and no one inspected the trees for 2 years which may have halted the progress of these bugs.

For those that missed it.....

Peter Jackson, a meteorologist in Prince George B.C., couldn’t believe what he was seeing on his radar screen. It was like a rainstorm, but thicker, and it was crossing east over the Rocky Mountains. It looked a little like insect swarms, except insects had never been seen at such high altitudes before. Farmers on the eastern slope of the Rockies described huge clouds of insects. They could hear them pinging off their steel roofs. The swarms were so dense they gummed up the windshield wipers on the farmers’ vehicles.

This was this first attack of the Mountain Pine Beetle east of the Rocky Mountains… the year when the unthinkable actually happened: carried along by the prevailing winds, trillions of Mountain Pine Beetles crossed the Rocky Mountains from BC into Alberta.

Now, the great Northern Boreal Forest, one of the world’s richest ecosystems and one of its greatest carbon sinks, was face to face with a grave threat - a plague of insects, each the size of a grain of rice.

In British Columbia, the damage done by this hungry little creature was already well known. In the interior of B.C. people called it ‘The Lodgepole Tsunami.’ In a period of less than 10 years, swarms of Mountain Pine Beetles ate their way through 18 million hectares of Lodgepole Pine forest, an area the size of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick combined. The ecological and economic cost has been staggering.

But the Mountain Pine Beetle is NOT an invasive species. It has lived with and co-evolved with the Lodgepole Pine for millennia. Like natural forest fires, the pine beetle is a critical actor in the natural cycle of forest regeneration. Every 25 years or so, in a period of warm winters and warm, dry summers, the beetle’s population would spike. Then they would attack, taking out over-mature trees, thus thinning the canopy to make way for younger tree growth. These outbreaks would last a year or two, then the normal weather patterns would prevail and an early cold snap or a stretch of cold winter weather would bring the population back under control.


more

CBC -The Nature of Things with David Suzuki - - The Beetles are Coming

 

[petros]

In that Suzuki video you just listed he does mention the reality of it.

Pines uses the beetles to weed out the old and the weak trees.

The forest needs the dead fall and fires to replenish the soil which is a living creature.

Depleted soil cultures mean no forest at all.

It's why the trees got weak and became susceptible to the beetle.

It's called sustainability.

You've heard of sustainability haven't you?

That's how nature is sustaining the forest.

 

[skookumchuck]

Pine Beetles were seen in Alberta one hundred years back and probably just not noticed before that.

 

[L Gilbert]

Beetles have 3 very powerful, natural enemies; sustained cold temps (like -20 or below that lasts for weeks), fire, and starvation. There are other living things that prey on the beetles, as well, including other types of beetles, birds like woodpeckers and flickers, parasitoids, etc., but none of those can have as devastating effects on pine beetle population as severe cold, fire, or starvation.
There is always chemical warfare, but that doesn't usually turn out so good for other species.

 

[Christianna]

All we needed here in BC was one week of -40, It has been years since we have had that. I think in fact about 16 or so years. Yet this area used to get that regularly. I remember cactus growing in this area, now it is moss, on roof tops, the sides of trees, even in our lawn.

 

[tay]

In that Suzuki video you just listed he does mention the reality of it.

Pines uses the beetles to weed out the old and the weak trees.

The forest needs the dead fall and fires to replenish the soil which is a living creature.

Depleted soil cultures mean no forest at all.

It's why the trees got weak and became susceptible to the beetle.

It's called sustainability.

You've heard of sustainability haven't you?

That's how nature is sustaining the forest.

Yes to all of the above but they (beetles) have not been this far North before due to tthe colder weather.

If you watch it you will see all of the above is taken into consideration...........

 

[damngrumpy]

We had to save every old growth tree because they were majestic or something.
First the beetle ate them, then they became a fire hazard and in the end on one
got any benefit out of them at all. The first evidence of the beetle should have
seen a torch put to those first trees and if they continued to grow we should have
used what ever spray was required to rid the pest from the area.
Yes I said spray the little buggers.
We are so caught up in natural we watch as unnatural things happen when balance
is upset and everything dies. Those trees could have been harvested and new trees
could have take their place without the worry of global warming, climate change or
anything else. This was mismanagement of the woods by the Socreds, the NDP and
the Liberal administrations.

 

[Nuggler]

Trade ya for our spruce budworm and emerald ash borer

 

[Rosebud]

We had to save every old growth tree because they were majestic or something.
First the beetle ate them, then they became a fire hazard and in the end on one
got any benefit out of them at all. The first evidence of the beetle should have
seen a torch put to those first trees and if they continued to grow we should have
used what ever spray was required to rid the pest from the area.
Yes I said spray the little buggers.
We are so caught up in natural we watch as unnatural things happen when balance
is upset and everything dies. Those trees could have been harvested and new trees
could have take their place without the worry of global warming, climate change or
anything else. This was mismanagement of the woods by the Socreds, the NDP and
the Liberal administrations.

DG:

I second that motion. If the clouds start to swarm again spray 'em.

They talk about our intruding and upsetting the balance for other species if we take drastic action. What is it when the beetles themselves cause an imbalance.? Isn't that what we are seeing right now?

 

[karrie]

Nature is full of temporary imbalances. Fires, floods, swarms, booms and busts in animal populations. We need to stop and be honest, that our desire to launch antifungals and all these other possibilities you've discussed, has NOTHING to do with protecting nature, and everything to do with interfering with a natural process in order to protect business.

Humans have intervened, and halted the natural ebb and flow of forests through forest fires. We've artificially created older and older forests, and like most old things, they've become susceptible to disease. Nature sees an opportunity, and when the beetles are done, they will starve themselves out and move on, like a forest fire but slower. New forest will grow, as it always does.

Our reasons for stepping in are selfish.

 

[petros]

Nature is full of temporary imbalances. Fires, floods, swarms, booms and busts in animal populations. We need to stop and be honest, that our desire to launch antifungals and all these other possibilities you've discussed, has NOTHING to do with protecting nature, and everything to do with interfering with a natural process in order to protect business.

Humans have intervened, and halted the natural ebb and flow of forests through forest fires. We've artificially created older and older forests, and like most old things, they've become susceptible to disease. Nature sees an opportunity, and when the beetles are done, they will starve themselves out and move on, like a forest fire but slower. New forest will grow, as it always does.

Our reasons for stepping in are selfish.

If the soil can't support a forest and the tree become weak and susceptible to beetles then the logical thing to do is let it go up in flames and restore the soil.

 

[Mowich]

If the soil can't support a forest and the tree become weak and susceptible to beetles then the logical thing to do is let it go up in flames and restore the soil.

Had BC done so when an outbreak of Pine Beetle was first reported in Tweedsmuir Park, the scenario might have been so much different than it is today.