Nature of Things Visits MPB Worksite
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SRD Provincial Mountain Pine Beetle Specialist Erica Lee explains single-tree cut-and-burn procedures to Dr. David Suzuki. |
Alberta’s actions against mountain pine beetle in the province were recently studied by Dr. David Suzuki for his CBC-TV program, The Nature of Things.
Dr. Suzuki and his three-person production team visited SRD staff working in forests near High Prairie on June 25 to see first-hand the single-tree cut-and-burn tactics being used to remove infested pine from the landscape.
Interviews and filming conducted that day will be included in a two-part feature story exploring climate change. The program, expected to air this fall, will include mountain pine beetle infestations in a broad examination of the effects and implications of global warming.
Dr. John Spence, Professor and Chair of the University of Alberta’s Department of Renewable Resources and a member of the Alberta Government’s Mountain Pine Beetle Advisory Committee, was interviewed for the Nature of Things segment. Dr. Spence reviewed the causes and impacts of Alberta’s mountain pine beetle infestation and said the Alberta government is taking the right approaches to managing the challenge.
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Dr. John Spence, second from right, is interviewed by Dr. David Suzuki, third from right, for Nature of Things segment about mountain pine beetle in Alberta. |
Also interviewed was SRD Provincial Mountain Pine Beetle Specialist Erica Lee, who discussed pine beetle life cycles and signs of infestations, as well as the operational tactics used to remove beetle-killed pine trees.
The CBC production team filmed a four-person SRD crew cutting and burning individually-attacked trees at the site near High Prairie, which is in the leading edge of the pine beetle infestation in Alberta. The area includes both lodgepole pine and jack pine, both of which have been attacked by beetles.
Scientists say pine beetles can survive in jack pine, whose stands stretch across Canada’s boreal forest to Labrador. Alberta is the front line of the battle to protect this national resource.
Along with single-tree cut-and-burn work, Alberta is managing infestations by directing forest companies to alter their harvesting plans to focus on infested and at-risk pine stands, and by harvest planning to reduce the overabundance of mature pine trees in the province’s forests.
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Nature of Things production crew films SRD employees cutting and burning beetle-infested pine trees. |
Prior to visiting with SRD in High Prairie, the Nature of Things production team filmed beetle-related segments in B.C., Saskatchewan and Grande Prairie, Alberta. Dr. Allan Carroll of the Canadian Forestry Service in Victoria, B.C., who is among the leading pine beetle scientists advising Alberta’s action plan to manage infestations in the province, was interviewed for the program.
Of the estimated three million beetle-attacked trees in Alberta, about 2.7 million are in the Grande Prairie and Peace regions of the province. There were 19,000 beetle-attacked trees in Alberta one year ago.
Each beetle-attacked tree contains enough insects to infest an additional five to 10 trees.
Trees killed by beetles will fade and turn red beginning about one year after the initial attack.
Alberta has six million hectares of pine trees, approximately 15 per cent of the province’s forested land base.
