Pine Beetle Removal Program Begins at Forests For The World

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 10:21 AM

Wiley Kitt of TDB Consultants starts to fall a group of dead pine beetle. (Photo Opinion 250 Staff)

Prince George, B.C. – The City of Prince George and TDB Consultants started the removal of pine beetle affected trees today at Forests For the World.

The project is part of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and the mountain pine beetle tree removal program that helps reduce the threat of forest fires and the hazards of dead trees to the public.

TDB started the removal of trees in the parking lot this morning and will move into the trails later today.

Joel Runtz, Operations Supervisor for TDB says the project would not have been possible without the partnership of Canfor, “All of the fallen dead trees will be taken to Canfor Pulp. We are quite fortunate they are taking them, they are not worth anything and without somewhere to take them we probably would not be able to do this work.”

Kim Menounos, City of Prince George Forester is reminding the public the trails are closed, “We have seen people who are curious about the equipment come and rip the tape off closed areas to see what is happening. This is a disregard for their safety. Trails such as the Greenway are still open, however Forests For the World is closed until further notice.”

The project is expected to take approximately 5 months depending on the weather and estimated at am cost of approximately $500,000.

The 2005-2006 winter beetle tree removal program removed approximately 107 logging truck loads of trees, the 2004- 2005 winter program removed approximately 220 truckloads of logs of trees.

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Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 10:21 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Anastasia on August 13 2008 10:46 AM

thankful that Canfor is willing to take the trees!! how about offering the wood to the general public, as there are a lot of homes that are heated by wood, and I am sure there would be no shortage of people showing up to haul it away for free as well!!

just my humble opinion

Posted by: Bridge on August 13 2008 10:47 AM

Why is the City removing trees in the forest for the world. A fire hazard give me a break. Isnt that a Provincial jurisdiction? Or are we just making employment for our newly employed Forester?

Cheers

Posted by: cruisrgirl on August 13 2008 11:18 AM

Isn't it funny how some people want to dump this is someone else's jurisdiction? This is a PG responsibility and I am happy we're dealing with this proactively at last.

Posted by: cobrasnake on August 13 2008 11:45 AM

The last time I checked there was a bunch of people living in the "hilton on the hill" why not get them to cut it and chop it by hand so that the general public can come and haul it away for free.

Posted by: DPJ on August 13 2008 11:00 PM

Good work TDB.

Posted by: bigdog on August 14 2008 7:00 AM

I agree with anastasia. If the wood is worth nothing to Canfor and they are sooo generously lending a helping hand, why not cut it to length for firewood and let the public get a head start on their winter supply. From what I understand a processor can be set to cut logs to any length so it wouldn't even be time consuming for someone to do it with a chainsaw. And yes to cobrasnake, why not let some of the guests on the hill get a little "fresh" air?

Posted by: cruisrgirl on August 15 2008 3:40 PM

It's called liability sweetheart! And who is going to pay for these guys to spends hundreds of hours bucking the wood up? Come on folks, get a clue.