Halifax begins assault on brown spruce long horn beetle

Red spruce trees started falling in Halifax's largest park on Monday. Close to 10,000 trees are being cut in an attempt to eradicate the brown spruce long horn beetle.

It'll take one to two months to cut that many trees in Point Pleasant Park. Officials want to destroy the beetle before it can spread and threaten Nova Scotia's multi-million dollar forest industry.

Greg Cunningham is with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. He says mass cutting is the only way to stop the spread of the beetle.

"This beetle carries out the majority of its life stage under the bark. Other methods of control, or eradication methods, are just not possible," he said.

As each tree comes down, the bark is stripped and burned. If there's anything good left, the wood will be sold as lumber.

There's a group out to stop the cutting. The Friends of Point Pleasant Park is applying for a temporary injunction. It hopes to have a hearing by the end of the week.