Prince George, B.C.- Two days of focus  on  the Spruce Beetle epidemic have  produced  important connections  says Heather Wiebe, resource manager in the Mackenzie Natural Resource District and Spruce Beetle Manager. 

“We have the  rock stars of entomologists,  combined with the people who are on the front line  in this outbreak.”    She says the topics covered over the two days  “wouldn’t  normally come up until  you make the room for that conversation to happen.”

The summit also linked those who have  previous experience in dealing with  a spruce beetle epidemic and those who are seeing this  kind of outbreak for the first time “They are asking  questions  that might seem a bit risky, but are not  afraid to ask them, so that, to me is the value of what we are doing.”

One hundred and 15  people attended the  two day summit,   surpassing expectations  says Wiebe “This was word of mouth, this was something we thought innately was important to us, but we didn’t realize how important it was to everyone else as well.”

Wiebe says the  two day session has also helped to identify other areas where the spruce beetle has been  having  an impact, but  the  aerial surveys haven’t yet detected the  damage because of the delay between the attack and the tree’s change in colour. ” Having those conversations now, is giving me hope that we can snuff out those (beetle) populations because that’s when trap trees are so effective.”

From the blue stain on the wood, to discolouration of the trees , there are many similar  characteristics between the spruce beetle damage and that of the mountain pine beetle “I think there is a lot of ‘beetle fatigue’ out there” says Wiebe,  “when you  say ‘beetles’,  their shoulders drop, their heads drop and they say ‘not another beetle’,  but it’s the differences we’re focusing on.  These beetles like those downed trees and  because they like them, we can do things like conventional trap trees  because  those conventional trap trees are working like sponges in the natural environment.   They  don’t travel the same ( as Mountain Pine Beetle)  either,  I call  them  little tanks with wings because they are  heavier and they are lazy.  As soon as they find that next susceptible host,  that’s where  they’re going, so it helps to keep that population contained.”

She says a positive is that Spruce trees  are mixed among other  species “But what is not in  our favour  is time.  They (the beetles) are  multiplying quickly,  not only on a two year life cycle, but  one year as well.  They are easily mobilized going from small diameter  to large diameter, and they are going into areas they haven’t been  in decades so the roads aren’t  there, the bridges aren’t there.”

Wiebe says there is a positive feel  coming from the summit,  “It feels very different,  it feels very much together in a team  approach, knowing that everyone has different values that they want out of  a healthy forest.  Some people at el looking for  habitat, others are looking at merchantability, and we are just finding that balance.”