Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) activity in southern Alberta remains low, but concerned residents can check their own properties to make sure they’re kept at bay.
One local professor said the reason MPB aren’t as active locally as they are in Northern Alberta is due to the lack of pine trees.
“A lot of the pine that is here isn’t very big, so there’s really not much habitat for MPB here overall. We wouldn’t expect them to get very established in this area,” said Mary Reid, professor of biological sciences and the environmental science program.
MPB have the ability to devastate large pine forests, but its consequences in southern Alberta would be relatively small as there are only a few trees they could kill.
Residents can check their properties by monitoring older pine trees that are more likely to be attacked.
“There could be MPB there. Then you could take action, potentially cut down the tree and check other neighbouring trees for MPB,” Reid said.
In late fall, individuals can check for small entry holes that produce resin, otherwise called pitch tubes, according to Alberta’s government.
Peeling the bark away from the entry holes exposes the beetles to the cold, but it is important to remove the infested tree prior to mid-June when mature beetles begin to emerge and attack other trees, the province stated.
Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (AAF) undertakes annual detection activities and population assessments throughout Alberta, such as flying over forests to look for dead or red patches.
These trees may be an indication of MPB, but since they’re likely in limited numbers, they are cut down and burned individually before the beetles emerge, Reid said.
“The concern is that MPB increases the risk of fire, but mostly they decrease the risk of fire,” Reid said.
Fire risk is high when the dead and red needles are still up in the canopy, but as soon as the needles drop, so does the risk of wildfire, she said. Due to MPB infested trees usually being bigger, their large trunks don’t catch on fire easily.
While the forests around Bragg Creek are over 100 years old, they aren’t more prone to burn than young forests, Reid said. Large trunks don’t burn easily and the canopy is much higher as well.
“That’s the big concern for forest fires from a human safety kind of perspective, if it gets into the canopy it can spread long distances, but when the canopy is far from the ground that risk is lower,” Reid explained.
She noted that the pine trees in Bragg Creek aren’t that big despite their age, which is another reason they aren’t as likely to attract MPB.
Bragg Creek is located just outside the Calgary Forest Area where the beetle is considered moderately successful by provincial standards, which is indicative of a static population.
Masha Scheele, HCN Staff
media@highcountrynews.ca
