From The Supply Post Archives: The Beetle War

Jun 10, 2021 - 4 years ago

This article first appeared in Supply Post, April 1973.

A bitter battle is being waged in the forests near Kelowna. It is between men and trees on one side and two types of bark beetles on the other.

From The Supply Post Archives: The Beetle War — Today: Aerial view of a severely affected white spruce stand. Photo courtesy Natural Resources Canada

The struggle is rally part of a continuous guerilla war which flares up at frequent intervals in varying parts of B.C. Right now there are four separate pockets of intense activity within 20 miles of Kelowna.

Obviously the city is not directly threatened, but the forests which sustain one of its most important industries are suffering. This in turn could seriously degrade several large forest recreation areas as well as extensive watersheds on which the people at lake level depend.

Men of the B.C. Forest Service, the Canadian Forestry Service and several logging companies have united in a concerted effort to destroy the invading beetles. And to be effective they must act quickly and take some drastic measures. They have drawn up a three-phase plan and did in fact launch their counter-offensive nearly a year ago.

The two most serious outbreaks have been caused by Spruce Bark beetles. They have been most devastating at the 5,000 to 6,000 feet level against mature and de3cadent spruce which often do not have the vitality to defend themselves.

These insects bore through the bark to the sapwood and lay eggs which hatch in 2 to 4 weeks. The young larvae then feed on the inner bark, and often kill the three within one to three years.

The Mountain Pine Bark beetle is the other intruder and it performs in much the same fashion. However, it seems to prefer an altitude of about 3,500 feet and attacks lodgepole pines.

Spearheading the attack on the beetles is Forest Ranger France Pearce of Kelowna. “Briefly,” he says, “the plan is to salvage the dead timber, rehabilitate the logged areas and replant them with nursery grown seedlings.”

Already many miles of access roads have been built by the logging companies and over 3,700 acres of the infested areas have been logged. Cutting on the remaining 4,800 acres will be require close to another year, and fortunately most of the dead timber remains commercially useable for two to three years.

On the west side of the Okanagan Lake, both Crown Zellerbach and Gorman Brothers are busy on the project. To the southeast of Kelowna, Northwood Properties is cleaning out another area. In all they are expected to salvage over 25 million cubic feet of useable wood.

Rehabilitation of the logged sites will entail the falling of snags and other residual trees as well as the burning of all slash. This is essential as much of it retains live insects which will spread to other stands if not destroyed.

“Slash will be burned this fall,” reports Ranger Pearce, “and we wil make every effort to time out operations so winds will carry the smoke away from the valley.”

Final phase will be the planting of young trees and this is expected to start immediately after the burning.

“One of the worst features of the project is the necessity to clear-cut bigger areas than usual,” said Frank Pearce. “Normally, we limit the logging operations to 80 acres in the Okanagan drainage but in these cases we have to make several clearings of about 1,000 acres to arrest the spread of the insects. Spraying is no solution — they live under the bark.”

As C.Z. Logging superintendent Bob Brown-Clayton says, “Maybe this is nature’s way of cleaning out old forests, but we’ve got a war on our hands and we must win it.”

This article first appeared in Supply Post, April 1973.