OTHER INITIATIVES
The Beetle Challenge | UBC Faculty of Forestry
The Beetle Challenge: An Overview of the Mountain Pine Beetle Epidemic and its Implications - This website is designed to be a guide to the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic and the challenges it presents. It provides information and resources on the infestation itself, government Mountain Pine Beetle initiatives, and current research. The site has been divided into eight sections, each detailing an important aspect of the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic.
» link to web site [opens new window]
Publication | Battling the Beetle | Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
[Battling the Beetle summary PDF]
 |
British Columbia is on the cusp of the greatest forest health crisis ever to confront the province since forestry emerged as a major economic activity within its borders more than a century ago.
There are numerous reasons for the crisis. First and foremost is a large, and as yet, far from over beetle infestation that is killing millions of pine trees in the province’s Interior. Second, generally warmer and drier weather, which many scientists believe will be with us for some time to come, is allowing more and more beetles to thrive. Third, a preponderance of older pine trees is exacerbating the outbreak by providing the beetles with the ideal food and breeding source. Last, and not least, Interior logging rates are rocketing upward in response to the beetles, fuelling concerns about the future of our forests, resource dependent Interior communities and the provincial economy as a whole.
Once the current logging boom runs its course, harvesting rates will plummet leaving many forest dependent communities facing an uncertain economic future. That is why this paper argues that there must be a concerted effort now to address the unfolding crisis, an effort that goes far beyond the current response.
» link to web site [opens new window]
Publication | Forest Fires in British Columbia: How Policies & Practices Lead to Increased Risk | Assoc. of BC Forest Professionals
Historic fire management policies focused on protection of commercial forests have resulted in extremely effective forest fire fighting capabilities that usually results in a successful, quick extinguishment of fires. BC’s policies have been focused on the societal goal that relates specifically to the protection of important forest resource values because fire has been seen as a destructive force in nature with no apparent benefit. Yet as we begin to understand more about the relationship of fire and the forest, science tells us that policies and practices of the past are having a significantly negative impact on forest ecosystems, especially in fire-dependent ecosystems such as the interior of BC.
