Alberta declares pine beetle emergency

The Alberta government has declared a pine beetle emergency, saying the infestation ismoving into the province at a rapid pace from British Columbia.

Sustainable Resource Development Minister Ted Mortonsaid Wednesday that by calling the situation an emergency, his department can tap intomoney from Alberta'sSustainability Fund, from which funds can only be withdrawn under certain criteria, such as emergencies like fires or droughts.

Morton hopes that the emergency declaration may alsohelp the province get more money from the federal government.

Thecash would be used to conduct aerial surveys and to hire ground crews to cut and burn infected stands of trees. ButMorton won't give an estimate as to how much might be needed.

Mountain pine beetles began invading parts of Alberta four years ago.

The Grande Prairie area in northern Albertacould have as many as three million infected trees, Morton said.Pine beetles are also a growing concern in the south.

"If you look where it is in British Columbia, you can see where it threatens to come across," he said. "In fact, we're already finding infected trees in the Spray Lakes areas and Crowsnest Pass, so we're going to have a busy summer."

The beetles are less than one centimetre long, but they are one of nature's most efficient predators.

Several thousand beetles burrow under the bark, laying eggs and destroying a valuable, 80-year-old tree within days. When the tens of thousands of eggs hatch, they decimate the next stand.

An environmental scientistat theUniversity of Calgary said hehopes Alberta isn't about to start clear-cutting large stands of trees in response to pine beetle infestation.

Ralph Carter said, in the southern part of the province, the beetles should be left alone and they will eventually die out.

"I think what they're thinking about is protecting forestry jobs and what I'm thinking about is protecting forests," he said. "I think in our current overheated economy the economic value of those forests is far greater in their standing form, includingstanding form being attacked by bark beetles, than in their removed form for logging."