By Sarah Wallace

A renewed agreement to help protect Sask. forests

Jan 18, 2015 | 10:07 AM

The Government of Saskatchewan, along with the Government of Alberta, have renewed their agreement together to fight against the spread of the Mountain Pine Beetle.

The beetle is known for devastating populations of lodge pole pine trees and jack pine.

The longstanding co-operation with the government of Alberta will help in slowing the spread of the beetle into Saskatchewan.

With Saskatchewan’s northern boreal forests full of jack pine, it’s important to mitigate the spread of the beetle, as it moves its way from British Columbia, into Alberta and into Saskatchewan.

Rory McIntosh, provincial forest entomologist and pathologist for the Ministry of Environment, with the forest service branch, said the renewal of the agreement is great news.

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“This is a renewal of [a] commitment to work together in a co-ordinated response to slow the spread and hopefully stop the spread of mountain pine beetles eastwards,” McIntosh said.

Saskatchewan will provide $1.25 million to the agreement which will be used in Alberta in an effort to prevent the beetles spread there.

“We work together closely with [our] counterparts in Alberta looking at overwintering, survival data, and survey data showing where the susceptible red attack trees are. We focus on areas of greatest risk to Saskatchewan,” said McIntosh.

There are some focus areas in east Alberta around Slave Lake, Marten Hills and Swan Hills in east Alberta where some of the money will be spent on preventative measures.

Also a part of their control actions will be removing infected trees, working more on research, surveillance and monitoring.

McIntosh said it’s a good sign the beetle hasn’t spread north in Saskatchewan, despite being seen in the Cypress Hills area of the province.

“We’re very happy with how things are turning out so far. We feel a proactive and aggressive response … makes it perfect to mount an aggressive control plan like we have.”

“We have to protect our forest resources in the province. Jack pine is a very valuable product, about one-third to a half of Saskatchewan’s total softwood harvest is jack pine.”

The Ministry has been conducting surveys in Northern Saskatchewan and last year’s survey saw no beetles in the northern boreal forest. 

Last year at tree detection sites in Alberta, the closest beetle was found about 50 kilometers from the Saskatchewan border.

This year the closest beetle was found 120 kilometers from the border.

McIntosh said this gives them a reason to be optimistic.

swallace@rawlco.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid