B.C. Quiz
Answer: It would take Winter temperatures of minus 40 to reduce the pine beetle population to normal levels.
Pine beetle invasion
6: Usual size, in millimetres, of a mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae—Latin for “pine tree killer”), one of B.C.’s most formidable pests.
80+: Typical age of lodgepole pine favoured by the pine beetle. Mature trees are more susceptible to infestation.
3: Weeks it may take for a beetle-plagued tree to die. The insect lays eggs under the bark; larvae feed on the phloem layer, choking off the tree’s supply of water and nutrients.
145,000: Square kilometres of B.C. timberland (roughly 46 percent of all pine in the province) affected since the current beetle infestation began in the late 1990s.
81: Percentage of beetle-killed pine in the Quesnel Timber Supply Area, the hardest-hit region.
8 to 12: Years that a beetle-killed tree may remain viable for commercial harvest.
71: Percentage of B.C.’s pine scientists estimate will be dead by 2019—their anticipated deadline for the end of the outbreak.
$23.5 million: Combined provincial and federal investment in B.C. pine-beetle control efforts over the last three years.
-40: Winter temperature, in Celsius, that would reduce pine beetle populations to normal levels if sustained over several days. A cold snap of -25 C in late fall or early spring would also be effective.
—Shanna Baker
[“Pine beetle invasion” was published in the Due West section of the Summer 2010 issue of British Columbia Magazine.]
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