Mountain Pine Beetle

1
Mountain Pine Beetle Dendroctronus ponderosae

• Presentation by
• Spray Lake Sawmills
• Woodlands

2
Mountain Pine Beetle - Biology

• Small, cylindrical, dark coloured, size of grain
  of rice
• 1 year life cycle (generally)
• Mid summer - Adult females fly attack new trees
  by boring through the bark into the sapwood

3
Mountain Pine Beetle Biology continued

• Females construct vertical galleries in the
  phloem
• Males join them, mate, females deposit eggs
• Eggs hatch into larvae feed outward from the
  vertical galleries

4
Mountain Pine Beetle Biology continued

• Over winter under bark as larvae
• Spring transform into pupae
• Summer emerge as adults, fly and attack new
  trees

5
Mountain Pine Beetle - Range

• Southern Rocky Mountains west of the
  continental divide
• Outbreak in Crowsnest Pass area about 25 years
  ago
• Not generally indigenous to Alberta

6
Mountain Pine Beetle Current Situation

• Several years of dry summers and mild winters
• 50 years of fire suppression
• Result vast tracks of optimal age size of
  lodgepole pine with a climate favourable for
  beetle expansion

7
Mountain Pine Beetle The Target

• The MPB can thrive on all pine species
• Albertas forests are 42 pine and 67 locally
• At present, primary host is Lodgepole Pine
• It can also do well in Whitebark Pine and Jack
  Pine
• This will open the door for expansion across
  Canadas Boreal Forest

8
Mountain Pine Beetle Natural Controls

• Endemic Populations
• Woodpeckers, viruses, climate , fire and other
  natural disturbances
• Epidemic Populations
• Cold winter weather with 30 to 40 dgrees

9
Mountain Pine Beetle Trees Natural Defense

• Resin production will pitch the beetle from the
  tree
• Healthy young trees will have a stronger chance
  of fighting off the beetle
• Older, weakened or stressed trees are more
  vulnerable

10
Mountain Pine Beetle How the Tree is Killed

• The shear number of beetles building galleries
  will effectively girdle the tree
• In addition, the beetle introduces a blue stain
  fungus into the tree which blocks the transport
  of water and nutrients

11
Mountain Pine Beetle Tools n Tactics

• Tools tactics will vary with landbase
  designations and organizational mandates
  objectives
• They will typically range from single tree
  treatments through to prescribed burns and
  harvesting

12
Mountain Pine Beetle Mgmt Guidance Documents

• MPB Action Plan for Alberta
• Interpretive Bulletin for Planning Response
  Operations
• Ground Rules Addendum
• Directive for Transport Storage of Affected Logs

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Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan for Alberta

• Goal mitigate effects of MPB on social,
  environmental economic values of our forests
• Defines 3 mgmt strategies
• Control strategy
• Prevention Strategy
• Salvage Strategy

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Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan Control
Strategy

• Aerial and ground surveys to locate infested
  trees
• Response Level I Single Tree Treatment
• Response Level II Stand Level Treatment

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Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan Prevention
(pine) Strategy

• Reduce spread and outbreak potential by reducing
  the area of susceptible stands
• Model stand susceptibility
• Reduce susceptible stands to 25 in 20 yrs

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Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan Salvage
Strategy

• Kicks in where/when the MPB infestation is
  beyond control
• The focus is on recovering dead and dying trees
  before the fibre is lost

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Mountain Pine Beetle Interpretive Bulletin

• Outlines criteria and protocols for planning
  harvest operations in response to the MPB
• Provides a direct, detailed, linkage to the
  Action Plan

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Mountain Pine Beetle Ground Rules Addendum

• Contains an outline of modified provincial ground
  rules to enable quick implementation of MPB
  operations
• Provides ground level operational
  direction/guidance for conducting harvest activity

19
Mountain Pine Beetle Directive for Log
Management

• This is an SRD Directive aimed at reducing the
  risk-of-spread when using harvesting as a control
  treatment
• Includes
• Log transport
• Log storage
• Manufacturing/residue management

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Mountain Pine Beetle Environmental Impacts

• Domino effect impacting a chain of resource
  values
• Water table
• Surface run-off / H2O quality
• Fisheries
• Veg. composition
• Wildlife habitat values
• Wildfire susceptibility
• etc

21
Mountain Pine Beetle Social / Economic Impacts

• Cascading impacts effecting a range of social and
  economic values
• Aesthetic / recreation values
• Range / forage values
• Access / class of roads
• Wood supply for forest industry
• Employment
• Municipal tax base

22
Mountain Pine Beetle Forest Industry Economic



Realities

• Planning chasing beetle affected wood is
  expensive
• Lower grades, recoveries and product values are
  expected
• Lumber markets are the lowest in 20 years
• Operating / Manufacturing costs have sky rocketed

23
Mountain Pine Beetle Economic Realities
continued

• There are announcements of mill closures almost
  weekly
• Off-loading the costs to fight the MPB onto the
  industry is not an option
• This is a societal issue not just a forest
  industry issue

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Mountain Pine Beetle What Can You Do?

• While the forest industry is the provinces
  biggest tool to help battle the beetle everyone
  has a part to play
• Patience understanding will be required
• Help us be effective
• Streamline admin processes and approvals
• Public education

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Mountain Pine Beetle Local Initiatives

• DFMP beetle susceptibility modeling and harvest
  re-sequencing
• Stakeholder Communication
• Prevention (pine) strategy plans for
• Jumping Pound
• East West Ghost

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Mountain Pine Beetle Wake-up Statistics

• Triple last years numbers for beetle infested
  trees in the Southern Rockies despite SRDs
  efforts with Level I Control Strategies
• A minimum 98 winter-kill is required to start
  reducing the population

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Mountain Pine Beetle More Information

• www.srd.gov.ab.ca/forests/health/mpb.html
• www.pc.gc.ca/dpp-mpb
• www.pfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/entomology/mpb/index_e.htm
  l
• www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/mountain_pine_beetle/
• www.barkbeetlelinks.ca
• Call 310-BUGS

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Mountain Pine Beetle Mgmt Documents continued
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Mountain Pine Beetle Preliminary Plan (Jumping
Pound Creek)
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Mountain Pine Beetle Visualization Modeling
Computer visualizations of proposed
cut-blocks within Jumping Pound Creek
Compartments (FMA 0100038) as seen from locations
near Barrier Lake and the Barrier Lake
information centre.
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Mountain Pine Beetle Preliminary Plan (West
Ghost)
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Mountain Pine Beetle
Questions???