mountain pine beetle – dendroctronus ponderosae
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Mountain Pine Beetle – Dendroctronus ponderosae. Presentation by: Spray Lake Sawmills Woodlands. Mountain Pine Beetle - Biology. Small, cylindrical, dark coloured, size of grain of rice 1 year life cycle (generally) - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Mountain Pine Beetle – Dendroctronus ponderosae
Presentation by:
Spray Lake Sawmills
Woodlands
www.spraylakesawmills.com
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
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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
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Mountain Pine Beetle – Biology continued
• Over winter under bark as larvae
• Spring – transform into pupae
• Summer – emerge as adults, fly and attack new trees
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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
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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
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Mountain Pine Beetle – The Target
• The MPB can thrive on all pine species
• Alberta’s 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 Canada’s Boreal Forest
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 SRD’s 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/entomolo
gy/mpb/index_e.html• 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
Action PlanInterpretive Bulletin
Control Prevention Salvage Ground Strategy Strategy Strategy Rules Level I Addendum Level II
Directive
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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 –