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Updated: Wed Apr. 23 2008 12:05:51
The reddened patches you see in this August 2006 photo taken east of Burns Lake, B.C. are caused by a mountain pine beetle infestation. (Bill Doskoch / CTV.ca)
In this July 5, 2005 file photo, a Mountain Pine beetle or bark beetle is seen on the tip of forester Cal Wettstein’s knife during the examination of trees in the White River National Forest near Vail, Colo. (AP / Ed Andrieski)
A mountain pine beetles is shown here in this handout photo from an electron microscope. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — British Columbia’s pine-beetle devastated forest is belching out enough carbon to equal Canada’s average annual forest fire emissions, says a new report from scientists at the Ministry of Natural Resources Canada.
Instead of manufacturing oxygen as it should, the damaged forest is becoming a source for global warming, putting more pressure on the need to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
The study, released Wednesday, calculates it will be much harder for Canada to meet global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when a huge section of B.C. forests is putting out carbon dioxide.
“What we’re saying is what has historically helped us attain moderate growth rates of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is, at least temporarily, in this region interrupted by the beetle,” said Werner Kurz, the study’s co-author.
Kurz, a senior research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada, has been working on the equation of carbon input and output of Canada’s forests since 1989.
The model works so well he’s training academics in Russia, Mexico and North America, on how to calculate the carbon balance of forests.
The study, which will be featured in the science journal Nature this week, adds a new dimension to the world-wide debate on global warming.
“For the first time we are able to isolate the impact of the beetle by creating the model infrastructure that allows us to represent the landscape with and without the beetle,” Kurz said.
Last month, the B.C. government announced that the voracious pest has destroyed nearly half of British Columbia’s marketable pine forest.
Approximately 13.5 million hectares of lodgepole pine in the province have been infested — an area more than four times the size of Vancouver Island.
The beetle is now push east past the Rocky Mountains and into B.C.’s southern interior region.
Researchers estimated that from 2000 to 2020, a 374,000-square kilometre area of B.C. forest (an area larger than Labrador) would produce 270,000 megatonnes of carbon.
Kurz said that’s about the same amount of carbon put out by Canada’s entire transportation sector over a five-year period.
“So these are very large numbers in terms of impacts to the atmosphere,” he said.
Scientists use the term carbon sink for a forest, ocean or other system that absorbs carbon dioxide. B.C.’s vast tracts of boreal forest have been considered a key carbon sink for the world.
Now Kurz said B.C.’s beetle-infested forest is a carbon source.
“Historically about 50 per cent of the carbon that is released from the burning of fossil fuels has been taken up by terrestrial systems and oceans, allowing only about half of what we burn for fossil fuel to accumulate in the atmosphere,” he explained. “With these kinds of impacts on forests that sink in the forests is, temporarily at least, not going to be operating.”
The seed of the pine beetle devastation goes back to between 1880 and 1920 when wildfires swept through North America.
The lodgepole pines, which need fire to release their seeds, regenerated millions of trees. And 100-year-old pine trees are prime targets for the rice-sized mountain pine beetle.
Warmer winters in B.C.’s Interior region helped the pest spread faster and higher into the mountain passes, killing the trees and turning millions of hectares of prime pine forests a rusty red.
“If there were something that could have been done, it would have been tried at the beginning of the outbreak,” Kurz said.
There are ways to mitigate the damage, including pulling the dead wood from the forests before the decaying timber pushes more carbon into the atmosphere.
Kurz suggests some of that wood could be used as a biofuel, that isn’t in competition with human needs for cleaner fuel such as corn or sugar.
“We have a material that is bestowed upon us through the impacts of wildfires, insects, drought and other processes and we have a choice to make,” Kurz said.
The other solution is silvaculture, planting millions of trees to compensate for the trees being lost.
The provincial government just recently announced that it had planted its sixth billionth tree since 1930.
But Kurz said those are all political decisions to make, and he’s only doing the research that raises the alarm.
“You can see this forest is eventually going to recover and regrown trees will eventually take up more carbon dioxide than the dead trees are releasing.”
Source: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080423/BC_CP_Pine_Beetle_Carbon_080423?hub=BritishColumbia
Updated: Sun Sep. 14 2008 13:17:57
The Conservative government has “raided” pine beetle funds and redirected the money to unrelated infrastructure projects, said former cabinet minister Ujjal Dosanjh.ctvbc.ca
Homeowners would be given government help to deal with trees infested by the mountain pine beetle as part of a $250-million Liberal plan to curb the beetle’s spread, former cabinet minister Ujjal Dosanjh said on Sunday.
Saying that the Conservative government has “raided” pine beetle funds and redirected the money to unrelated infrastructure projects, Dosanjh promised that every penny would fight the effects of the beetle.
“This is important work that should have been done and needs to be done,” Dosanjh told reporters.
The mountain pine beetle has devastated nearly half of B.C.’s marketable pine forest — an area more than four times the size of Vancouver Island.
The infestation has been another hit to the province’s beleaguered forestry industry, and swaths of trees have turned from green to a rusty red.
While scientists say its expansion through B.C. is slowing because it is running out of new trees to infest, the beetle is now pushing east past the Rocky Mountains and into Alberta.
The new money would be spent over four years and would be part of a forestry strategy, said Dosanjh.
Homeowners who needed to remove infested trees would be given federal help, he said. Businesses already receive tax cuts to remove trees.
The government would help First Nations communities create fire protection plans and buffer zones to lower the risk of forest fire from the dry tinder, he said.
And the Liberals would hold a national forestry summit on behalf of a sector they say has been ravaged by a softwood lumber deal forged by the governing Conservatives.
“Canada’s forestry industry is facing tremendous challenges,” Dosanjh said.
Please Add Comments(5)
Jim Ross
What’s next? Another 250 million for Low-Income Pine Beetle Condos?
Homeowners are not the ones who require help. What about the backbone of our province, the forest industry?
Bruce
This is a bit rich coming from Dosanjh, who was a member of the NDP government of the time which did nothing, but make the problem worse.
And then we have the current BC Liberals who blame the Asian Mountain Pine Beetle infestation on, so called, global warming.
It was then NDP Premier Mike Harcourt and Forests Minister Dave Zirnhelt who cancelled the contract with Carrier Lumber, to harvest what was a relatively small infestation at the time, on the tarmac at the airport in Vanderhoof to appease the Carrier Indian Band who wanted the work, but never did a damn thing. The taxpayers of BC ended up being stuck with a $300 million dollar tab to settle with Carrier Lumber.
The BC Liberals and the BC NDP are both as big a fraud as AGW. Dosanjh is nothing more than an opportunistic mouthpiece.
asagan
And not one penny when they were in power.
MR Mick
Lieberals. I just wish they would take a hike !!
Bye Bye…next election.
Dan in Victoria
Helping individual homeowners sure sounds nice but it would probably involve yet another federal department to administer the program. I doubt that much of the $250 million would reach individual homeowners.
Frankly given the previous pattern of ineffective programs started by previous Liberal Governments, I would say this idea would be a waste of money.
Helping communities via grants is the way to go, not helping individules. Fighting the Pine Beetle is going to be a continuing battle for some years. Thus I support what the Conservative Government did in redirecting funds.
Source: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080914/BC_Liberals_Promise_To_Fight_Pine_Beetle_080914?hub=BritishColumbia
Greenhouse gas emissions have risen 25 percent since 1990, according to a new study.
Updated: Tue Apr. 22 2008 13:06:58
ctvbc.ca
OTTAWA — Canadians are the third largest greenhouse-gas emitters in the world, according to a new study.
A Statistics Canada report released today shows a 25 percent rise in emissions between 1990 and 2005.
The study found each Canadian is responsible for the equivalent of just over 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide, compared to the United States with 24.4 tonnes, and Australia with 27 tonnes.
Canadians may not be the worst offenders, but our figures are roughly twice as high as some other developed nations, such as Germany (12.1 tonnes), Britain (10.9), Japan (10.6) and France (9.2).
In 2005, human activities released 747 megatonnes of carbon dioxide into Canada’s atmosphere – up from 596 in 1990.
One megatonne is equal to one million tones. To put this in perspective, driving a mid-size car about 5,000 kilometres results in about one tonne of emissions.
Canada is a disproportionately high emitter. With only 0.5 per cent of the world’s population, we contribute about two per cent of the total greenhouse-gas emissions.
By 2005, energy production and use accounted for more than 80 per cent of Canada’s emissions.
Transportation activities accounted for 27 per cent of all Canadian emissions in that same year.
The report also showed serious impacts of global warming in B.C., resulting in a 1.4 °C increase in annual temperatures in Canada between 1948 and 2007.
The increase is most prominent in the North British Columbia Mountain region, the Yukon, and parts of the Northwest Territories.
The study’s authors say the spread of the mountain pine beetle in the central interior of the province increase coincides with warmer winter extremes.
By 2007, the area affected by the infestation covered almost 13 million hectares – and an estimated 530 million cubic metres of dead wood.
The report admitted the spike in emissions over the past 20 years would have been much greater without improvements in energy efficiency.
Source: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080422/BC_earth_day_stats_can_greenhouse_emissions?hub=BritishColumbia
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