EDMONTON -- Alberta will wrap up its aggressive summer campaign against the spread of the destructive mountain pine beetle by burning a forested valley northwest of Jasper.
Officials hope torching 110 square kilometres of trees in the Willmore Wilderness Park will close an invasion route used by the tiny voracious insects, which have killed millions of hectares of forest in British Columbia.
Since mid-July, helicopter-borne crews have found and destroyed 5,000 infected trees in the remote area, which is uncomfortably close to rich stands of commercial timber outside the park.
"We've hit it hard," David Coutts, Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, said.
"We know if we stop it early we will have success. We don't want to see what happened in British Columbia happen to Alberta."
The beetle -- usually less than one centimetre long or about the size of a grain of rice -- is one tough, resilient bug. It has a built-in antifreeze system that allows it to withstand all but the most intense cold.
Experts say it would take weeks of -35 C temperatures when they are vulnerable in October and November to kill them off -- the kind of extended fall cold snap Alberta has not experienced in years.
In the summer, the beetles sprout wings that allow them to migrate on the prevailing westerly winds.
They destroy lodgepole pines by eating the bark when they lay their eggs and by introducing a fungus that impedes the flow of nutrients and water.
With an extensive pine forest industry, Mr. Coutts said Alberta cannot afford to depend on Mother Nature to deal with the threat.
On Aug. 18, Mr. Coutts will meet with the corporations that make up Alberta's forest products sector to map out a new strategy to deal with the beetles.
One plan being developed would give companies the flexibility to quickly change their timber-harvesting agreements in order to log areas threatened by the bugs, Mr. Coutts said.
"We will meet with industry representatives to look at some of our harvesting plans to maybe focus on mature pine stands. It is the mature pine that the beetle goes after," he said.
"We take that mature pine forest and get rid of it. That will act as a buffer and stop the beetle as well."
The burn-and-cut strategy is being applauded by Alberta's forestry industry, but environmentalists say the province is moving too quickly without public input.
The beetle problem is actually on the wane in British Columbia and does not pose a major threat to Alberta, said Vivian Pharis of the Alberta Wilderness Association.
Ms. Pharis accused the government and industry of using the bug as an excuse to speed up logging of old-growth pine forests along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
"I think it is a ruse they are using to log the hell out of areas," Ms. Pharis said. "These are plans that are quite aggressive without looking at the ecological implications of getting rid of the old growth. We want all that looked at."
Parker Hogan, spokesman for the Alberta Forest Products Association, characterized the magnitude of the beetle outbreak as "the thin edge of the wedge."
Mr. Hogan said it is inevitable the beetles will eventually spread from the park to commercial forest-management areas.
"It is not a question of if, it is a question of when and how big. If you don't get them, they will get all of the pine," he said. "The quick response of the Alberta government to this is very welcomed by the industry."
Wanda Dennelly, a spokeswoman for Weyerhaeuser in Alberta, said the company is keen to work with the province on the beetle problem.
"The government is treating this very seriously," Ms. Dennelly said. "We are extremely pleased with how the government has been handling things."
Alberta has had other brushes with the pine beetle.
Between 2002 and last year, about 2,000 infected trees were removed in the Bow Valley, west of Calgary.
Between 1977 and 1986, about 3.5 million trees in the province were destroyed by beetle infestations.Globe and Mail
