Jasper National Park has recently come under fire for what some are calling a failure to properly control the spread of mountain pine beetle.
Concerns about the beetle—which kill trees by burrowing under their bark, stopping the flow of nutrients—have escalated in recent years, as it slowly makes its way from British Columbia across Alberta.
Greg Pasychny is the mayor of Edson. He pointed out that there’s a large population of mountain pine beetle in Jasper, which he said “Parks Canada doesn’t want to do anything about.”
He said his community’s economy is driven in large part by the forestry industry, and would be hit hard by a major infestation of the beetle.
“We have two mills in our community and they’re really afraid of those beetles flying out of the park ... and infesting their forests,” he explained, pointing out that the beetle is believed to have originally made its way into Alberta from a British Columbia national park.
Brock Mulligan, a representative of the Alberta Forest Products Association, confirmed Pasychny’s claims.
“It could have a major impact. The ability to access fibre that’s of good quality and a secure supply to be able to run your mill and employ people, that’s critical to us,” he said.
Mountain pine beetles have always existed in western Canada, but decades of fire suppression combined with recent warming climate has left forests particularly vulnerable to the pest.
In the early 2000s, the beetle’s population exploded in B.C., affecting more than 40 million acres of B.C.’s forests and devastating the province’s forestry industry.
But because the beetle is a natural part of the ecosystem, within Jasper, Parks Canada has no plans to take significant action against its spread. It is however, using natural management tools—specifically prescribed burns along the park boundary—to try and keep the mountain pine beetle from spreading into outside forests.
Mulligan said his organization is also concerned with rapidly expanding populations in Jasper. He understands the importance of Parks’ approach, but said it should be “balanced off with the need to protect 13,000 unique jobs and 50 communities that are dependent on Alberta’s forestry industry.”
Edson town councilor Brian Boyce is also concerned with the potential devastation a beetle infestation could have, however, he thinks Parks needs to take much more aggressive action against the beetle.
He said he was frustrated with what he perceived as Parks’ unwillingness to do so.
“There’s not been a lot of dialogue with Parks Canada,” he said. He pointed out that human activity is responsible for the beetle’s exploding population, and how, in light of that, it is now our responsibility to take measures to fix the problem.
“I don’t think Parks is taking the right measures.”
According to Parks representative Kim Weir, in 2008 the organization lost the funding that allowed it to undertake measures to control the beetle. Since that time, populations in the park have been slowly rising.
That rise ramped up significantly in 2013, when the number of infested pine trees rocketed to 1,900, from a previous average of anywhere from 100–400. This year the problem got even worse, when Parks saw so many infested trees it stopped counting them individually, and started counting hectares of infested trees.
According to Dave Smith, a fire and vegetation specialist with Parks, approximately 6,000 hectares of pine are now infested in Jasper.
That ballooning beetle population mirrors a steady increase in beetle numbers just over Jasper’s border.
West Fraser Mills monitors certain trees in the Hinton area each year to keep an eye on the beetle’s population. The company’s data shows a significant increase in the number of infested trees since 2012.
That year, 26 per cent of its monitored trees were mass attacked by mountain pine beetles. In 2013, 31 per cent of its trees were mass attacked. This year, as populations exploded in Jasper, 52 per cent of West Fraser’s monitored trees were hit.
Company representative Bruce Alexander said the numbers trouble West Fraser, especially as it watches mountain pine beetle populations expand dramatically in Jasper.
Mulligan said the AFPA has similar concerns with the park’s ballooning beetle population, because history has shown that the beetle can be quite mobile.
“We know that it’s highly mobile, that it can move around, and that if you have the right conditions to host it the risks are very high,” he said.
But while many are concerned with the growing beetle menace in Jasper, to date there’s no concrete evidence that the beetle is actually coming through Jasper and into Hinton or Edson.
In fact, Smith, who has been studying the beetle since 2000, said he is fairly confident that’s not what’s happening at all.
It’s impossible to say with absolute certainty where specific beetles came from, but Smith said the patterns of infestation in Jasper don’t really point to the fact that Jasper beetles are infesting Hinton forests.
Smith pointed out that compared to somewhere like Mount Robson Provincial Park in B.C.—which has infestation rates as high as 80 per cent in some areas—Jasper’s rates are quite low.
Parks staff have discovered large populations of the pest in the west end of the park—west of the Jasper townsite in the Miette corridor, as well as the Whirlpool Valley area—but beetle activity further east is scarce.
Smith said it’s likely that the beetles making their way into the Hinton area are coming from highly infested areas around Whitecourt and Grande Cache. He said this makes even more sense when you consider that weather patterns often sweep down from these areas into the Hinton area, making the trip an easy one for the beetle.
Nevertheless, mountain pine beetle is still creeping eastward through the park, and Smith said Parks is doing everything it can to keep the beetle from spreading into the rest of Alberta.
He said that each year the beetles move to new trees to lay eggs, but by clearing large swaths of the forest with prescribed burns, those trees disappear, leaving the beetles with no place to live for the winter.
“What we’re doing is we’re putting prescribed fire out in front of the beetle, which will eliminate that habitat. So when they fly into that habitat there’s nothing for them to attack.”
This has been Parks’ approach for years, and Smith said that despite the sudden and rapid increase in pine beetle population, there are no plans to change course.
“We have our plan and we’re sticking to it,” he said, adding that he has funding to do even more burning along the eastern border this winter.
That fire guard seems to be working for now, but Smith warned that even with all the work Parks is doing, Mother Nature “works 365 days a year, 24 hours a day,” and if one year conditions are right, the beetle could fly directly over Jasper from Mount Robson, into the rest of Alberta.
“We have kept the beetle from moving through Jasper, but it’s just gotten to a point now where there’s just so much build up at the edge of the park, it’s just flowing in.
“We really are trying our hardest, but anyone who thinks they can control Mother Nature is not thinking properly.”
Trevor Nichols
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