The cold likely killed some pine beetles.
Long before the current federal Liberal party and British Columbia’s NDP party took turns lobbying obstacles on Alberta, Mountain Pine Beetles (MPB) began their economic and landscape changing onslaught. The MPB attack has been underway in Alberta since the early 2000s. These pests have expanded beyond their traditional habitat of Western North American pine forests to the boreal forests of Alberta, with Saskatchewan in their sights. BC knows the impacts of the beetle all to well, with over 50 per cent of BC’s pine tree volume killed by MPB and a long-term impact of $57 billion in lost GDP. In Alberta, the remaining pure pine trees are estimated to be worth over $11 billion.
The current land area of Western Canada that has been impacted is presented below:
Extreme cold is known to slow down the spread of the beetle. When temperatures drop below -30ºC for a few days or more, the chances of MPB larvae perishing increases significantly. As the figure below shows, northwestern Alberta experienced these low temperatures during the week of January 13, 2020.
Mountain Pine Beetle Facts:
During the week of January 13, 2020 temperatures were very low for an extended period of time causing a chance that it killed some MPB and their larvae. Janice Cooke, a University of Alberta biological sciences professor mentioned that the cold weather in Jasper last week might have killed more than 95 per cent of the MPB larvae in the area. Cooke noted that the total number of beetles/larvae that died during the cold snap would not be known until the ground surveys are completed later this summer. The more MPB larvae that die in Alberta, the slower MPB can attack the rest of Canada.
