The Douglas fir beetle continues to make its way into Prince George.
"The Douglas fir beetle is already here," Bill Kordyban, president of Carrier Lumber, said at a presentation to city council last week. "Overview flights of Prince George reveal a growing problem related to the beetle and government data suggests epidemic numbers."
Infestations in the Prince George forest district increased from 1,305 ha to 8,127 ha between 2015 and 2016.
"Prince George is iconic for its forested escarpments and it's at risk. We want to be proactive, not reactive."
Last year, the beetle was seen mostly in the Pidherny Recreation area on the Hart.
About 150 truckloads of infested trees were removed from the area over this past winter.
But the beetle is continuing to spread.
The Douglas fir beetle normally infests downed, damaged or stressed trees and as populations increase, they "mass attack" vigorous trees.
Trees die when the flow of nutrients and water between the roots and needles is blocked by feeding larvae and by dead sapwood cells filled by the blue-stain fungi carried by adult Douglas fir beetles.
Adults burrow through the bark of Douglas fir trees and bore long galleries parallel to the grain of the inner bark to lay their eggs.
They typically fly in May and June when the temperature hits over 18 C.
A sign of infestation is reddish brown dust around bore holes on the trunk.
There are several strategies to help prevent the spread, according to Kordyban, including the sanitation (burning) of infested trees before beetles emerge in the spring.
Another preventative measure might include harvesting over-matured or decaying trees, a favoured location for the beetle.
Douglas fir firewood should be cut after August and burned before spring.
It is also beneficial to identify possible trap trees as one well-placed trap tree can absorb enough beetles to save 10 adjacent trees.
And employing a cluster of funnel traps with attractant lures to collect flying beetles would help better rid the spread as well.
Ground and area surveys continued in the Otway and Pidherny area in the fall of last year and trap trees were felled in the spring of this year.
Anti-pheromone and funnel trap programs were also put into place in Pidherney and Otway this past spring.
This winter, planned activities include more information sharing, a removal of the remainder of infested trees in Pidherny and the continuation of the anti-pheromone program.
