So the beatles start in Tweedsmuir and we couldnt fight them until they were out of the park and it was too late... now there is a fire in Tweedsmuir and we wont fight it until... oh never mind, as long as its a protected park to make people feel warm and fuzzy right?

Bang on interceptor. Couldn't have said it better myself.

"So the beatles start in Tweedsmuir"

Actually they started in Liverpool, became popular in Hamburg, and then move to the Ed Sullivan shoe.

As far as beetles go, Tweedsmuir is only one of several epicentres. Colorado's pines, for instance, are pretty well all gone. But no one around here really cares, do they? Theirs did not start in Canada.

In BC, the original 1994 and later epicentres include:
1. south of Quesnel,
2. near Fort St. James,
3. south of Williams Lake,
4. near Princeton and
5. in the East Kootenays.

For those of you who are not familiar with pine beetle populations you might be interested to know that beetles have been present in pine stands for hundreds and likely even thousands of years.

They are one of the agents of change and renewal of natural forests. We just happen to be living during one of those periods that they expanded.

They did not come from one place only. They existed in many locations and conditions came together over several years which allowed them to grow out of control rather than being kept in check by natural forces.

Those conditions included:
1. monocultures of large pine stands
2. fire suppression
3. climate change main factors

For those who may be interested in a scientific point of view rather than a political point of view, click on the link.
http://www.geog.uvic.ca/dept2/faculty/nelson/JEI-06.pdf

Tweedsmuir Park again in the news, eh? Any comment I missed from Dave Zirnhelt?

Interestingly though there is now a huge problem with Douglas Fir beetle and yet nothing in the news about that yet. They were doing fall and burn up in the Chilcotin all winter but driving to 100 mile house on Sat. thay have already lost the battle. The Fir trees around Williams Lake are already decimated and any fall and burn is way too late. Could Elaine or Ben do some follow up on this for us???

I see tent caterpillars are on their way back, a site near Dunkley and one near McLeod Lake, should nuke them before the denude every aspen in the country.

nice to see a well written reply to to the myth that the pine beetle problem could have been stopped in Tweedsmuir.

"We don't log parks". Kinda like "We don't operate above the gangrene". Just to draw a parallel. Duh!