Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Another Threat to the Forest

By 250 News

We haven't even finished dealing with the mountain pine beetle and the forest is facing another threat.

A common fungus has turned lethal and is killing trees in western Canada in what researchers describe as a globally unprecedented epidemic all coming as a result of the changes in the climate . 

In a report to the Journal of Bioscience, BC Forest Pathologist Alex Woods says the fungus is killing plantations of lodepole pine and the hardest hit areas are also affecting mature native trees. 

In a report to the Journal, Woods describes how the innocuous fungus has turned into a killer adding more problems to a forest industry that has been heavy hit by the mountain pine beetle. 

The fungus, called Dothistroma septosporum, is flourishing in northwestern BC where Woods says wet summers have increased its spread. 
It attacks the trees needles and over the course of five or six years, the tree becomes a bare grey skeleton.

Over 92 % of the trees in the Woods study areas show some sign of the infection. Woods says that as many as half the trees in the worst hit plantations could die. 

Over 40,000 hectares in the region of Kispiox are the most severely effected , but the fungus is also killing mature native lodgepole pine, that's something scientists haven't seen happen anywhere in the world. 
Previous Story - Next Story



Return to Home