Northern B.C. mayor wants province to act now to squash spruce beetle infestation
'We're going to end up losing our spruce trees like we did our pine'
Beetles are once again wreaking havoc on British Columbia's forests and the mayor of Telkwa, B.C. says the province must do more to stop the infestation now to protect both the trees and the timber industry.
Brad Layton, the mayor of Telkwa, B.C., located 350 kilometres west of Prince George, is worried about the spruce beetle, a forest pest about six millimetres long that attacks the inner bark of spruce trees and can seriously harm or kill the tree, similar to how the mountain pine beetle epidemic destroyed millions of hectares of B.C. timber beginning in the late 1990s.
According to the province, there are more than 341,000 hectares of forest infested with spruce beetles in the north central Interior of B.C., and Layton says the government could do more to handle the problem now before it balloons beyond control.
"The government is spending the money to do overview flights and monitoring and very, very little in targeted treatments or funding to get treatments done," said Layton in a phone interview with CBC's Daybreak North.
Layton said spruce beetles are easily foiled by"trap trees," which are trees intentionally cut down to lure beetles away from those meant to be harvested, and he would like more funding dedicated to initiatives like trap tree programs that have been proven to work in the past.
"Trapped trees are really effective," said Layton, who also works as a forest consultant. "The pheromone of the tree being put down attracts them and they come in from half a mile away quite easily."
According to Layton, it can take two to three years to stop an outbreak with proper treatment, but this infestation is already into its sixth or seventh year and is getting bigger with every passing day.
He said it took months before the government approved a trap tree program in his area and he would like to see more full-time positions created, and more funding dedicated to the spruce beetle problem, to reduce future delays and tackle the problem now.
"We're going to end up losing our spruce trees, like we did our pine trees, and our forest industry will take decades and decades to recover," said Layton.
The mayor said warmer winters due to climate change means spruce beetles, which are normally killed off in cold weather, will continue to flourish if the problem continues unchecked.
According to the provincial government's website, the province is monitoring the situation to minimize impacts on timber supply, the forest industry and forestry jobs and will continue to work with forest licensees and other stakeholders to identify affected areas, evaluate population control methods and determine the most effective ways to limit the current outbreak.
Layton is in Vancouver for the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention taking place Sept. 23- 26. He has requested a meeting with Forestry Minister Doug Donaldson.
To hear the complete interview, see the audio link below:
With files from Daybreak North