Chris, I was in Calgary after DDT was banned.
The mosquitoes were lining up to get you. They had trouble finding an unstung patch of skin. So, handling the beetle may be easier than is posited. Harry ******************************* Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 818 352-4141 ******************************* > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:futurework- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christoph Reuss > Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 8:47 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Futurework] the Future of Work in Canada... > > ...could be cleaning up the pine beetle before it destroys all forests. > This is for those who think that increased CO2 is good because it > makes > plants grow faster... > > Chris > > > > <<Unless there is a severe winter cold snap, all recently attacked > trees > will have to be logged or burned before the beetles fly again. In > many > cases, such work will require crews going into forests that are not > commercially viable to get rid of the infested trees. Work crews > will > also have to identify all newly attacked trees and get rid of them > too. > The heartening thing is that in parts of BC where the outbreak is > not > too intense, such efforts have worked. And they could again, if the > will is there.>> > > > Canada's looming forestry crisis > > By BEN PARFITT > > People rarely get excited about bugs, except in summertime when > mosquitoes > swarm and thoughts turn to West Nile Virus. > But there is plenty to get excited about when considering a certain > beetle > now overrunning British Columbia's forests, a bug that is on a > frightening > flight path toward Canada's cross-country, northern boreal forest. > The economic and ecological implications of the mountain pine > beetle's foray > into the boreal would be staggering. Hundreds of millions of trees > killed. > Valley after valley carpeted in spires of dead and deteriorating > pine. And > one of Canada's most important industries -- one with exports of > $40 billion > in 2003-2004 -- facing a looming shortage of trees. > Two years ago, Canadian Forest Service scientists noticed telltale > signs > that the beetles had leapt the formidable northern Rocky > Mountains to land > near Chetwynd, BC. There, the needles of thousands of pines were > now a rusty > red, meaning the beetles had bored into and killed the trees a year > earlier. > It was the clearest signal yet that the beetles were on the doorstep of > the > boreal, with only a few hundred kilometres more to go before being > firmly > ensconced there. > As a beetle infestation of biblical proportions continues rolling > through BC > threatening the economic livelihood of dozens of communities, it is > worth > asking whether everything is being done to prevent a similar > calamity > further to the east. > In the politics-as-soap-opera environment that is Ottawa, it is no > real > surprise that a federal government decision in March to give BC > $100 million > to fight the mountain pine beetle barely registered in the national > media. > Yet how those funds are spent could effectively blunt the attack in > one > critical area where the beetles have made a troubling appearance. > In much of BC, stopping the beetles would be about as easy as a > beach bum > sucking up an incoming wave with a straw. So intense is the > infestation > around communities like Quesnel and Prince George that the once > green forest > is a sea of red. But around Chetwynd, where the beetles have never > before > been, things are different. They are isolated and still relatively small > in > number. > Getting rid of them, however, is another matter. Unless there is a > severe > winter cold snap, all recently attacked trees will have to be logged > or > burned before the beetles fly again. In many cases, such work will > require > crews going into forests that are not commercially viable to get rid > of the > infested trees. Work crews will also have to identify all newly > attacked > trees and get rid of them too. The heartening thing is that in parts > of BC > where the outbreak is not too intense, such efforts have worked. > And they > could again, if the will is there. > Curiously, Ottawa's announcement spoke not a word about keeping > the beetles > out of the boreal. Yet given the stakes involved, this is precisely > what > most if not all of that $100 million should be spent on. > The other thing not mentioned by Ottawa, nor BC for that matter, > is that > today's beetle numbers are out of control for reasons that pose huge > challenges for Canada. First, more and more beetles are doing > damage because > global warming is making the environment more to their liking, > allowing them > to expand their range. Second, thanks to our fire-fighting efforts > there are > now many far more older pine trees on the landscape than there > were a > century ago. Ironically, by "saving" forests from fires, we're > sentencing > them to destruction by other means. > Somehow in the midst of all of this a new course must be charted. > The > beetles threatening Canada's boreal forest thrive in situations > where > landscapes are much the same. By rejecting monocultures and > striving to make > our forests more of a patchwork quilt of wildly diverse ages and > species, we > can make them a whole lot less susceptible to the kinds of > devastating > outbreaks now underway. > A more hopeful plan would see us embracing diversity at every turn > in the > years ahead. The biggest and most important tools at our disposal > in that > work are logging, deliberately set and carefully controlled fires, and > planting the right trees in the right places, with an aim to ensuring > that > we enhance biological diversity at every turn. > The industry that benefits from logging has a role to play in that > work. But > given the enormity of the challenges ahead, public reforestation > funds are > also needed. In BC, the province needs at a minimum to start > investing about > $120 million per year in reforestation and forest restoration efforts. > Once > it does, it will be in a lot better position to turn to Ottawa for > further > help. > With the beetles poised for a cross-Canada sweep, bold and creative > responses are required. Anything less, puts our national boreal > forest at > grave risk. > Ben Parfitt is the resource policy analyst with the BC Office of the > Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of Battling the > Beetle: > Taking Action to Restore British Columbia's Interior Forests, a > new CCPA > report available on-line at: http://www.policyalternatives.ca. > > -- > Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives > 410-75 Albert Street, Ottawa ON K1P 5E7 > tel: 613-563-1341 fax: 613-233-1458 > http://www.policyalternatives.ca > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the > keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [email protected] > http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
