Lessons Learned From Pine Beetle Epidemic: FORREX Conference
By 250 News
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 03:37 AM
Prince George, B.C. - The Forest Research Extension Partnership (FORREX) has organized a two day conference (June 10 & 11 at UNBC) under the title “Mountain Pine Beetle: From lessons learned to community-based solutions.
Over 150 people attended the first day of the conference which was organized by FORREX to “highlight and share significant ‘lessons learned’ from both First Nations and non-First Nations perspectives, and to discuss what the latest science, experiential and Traditional Knowledge is telling us about the influence of the [pine beetle] as a disturbance agent.” Conference chair Al Wiensczyk of FORREX opened the conference and welcomed the participants.
Phil Burton, who is an adjunct professor at UNBC and the author of over 50 scientific papers, told the audience in his session that natural “disturbance” of the forest ecology is a necessary agent of ecological diversification. From that perspective, “disturbance,” whether it is insect infestation or other natural event, cannot and should not be completely eliminated, but instead foresters should have the perspective of “managing” it. The key issue is whether or not the “disturbance” is inside or outside the bounds of natural variability.
He also pointed out that there is mounting evidence that salvage logging of pine beetle infested stands is actually causing more degradation of the forests than the natural disturbances. In that respect, it is estimated that 30% of infested pine stands are fully stocked with other species and do not need either salvage logging or replanting.
In terms of restoring the forests, Burton suggests that more fires are needed and could “logically be the primary tool of restoration.” In the natural cycle of the forest ecology, these fires play an important role, but for many years have been suppressed, this suppression eventually creating an ideal host for the pine beetle to spread.
In his presentation, Dr. Bill Bourgeois talked how there could be a 40% in the Interior forest economy by 2015. He commented on the fact that a lot of work has already been undertaken by governments at various levels, communities, First Nations and industry, but that, while these efforts had similar goals, they were not focused on the same things. One of the problems is that both government and industry don’t take the long range view with their policies, and he noted that this had to be changed or there will be even more problems ahead. In that respect, he emphasized that government policies must be customized for each community, rather than taking a cookie cutter approach.
Dan George, CEO of the First Nations Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative, talked about how the FNMPBI had come into being and how it had developed a number of guiding principles including ensuring that projects show respect for cultural diversity, that they involve whole First Nations communities, and that aboriginal people are involved at every stage of the project design, implementation and evaluation process.
He also discussed the issue of the very large forest fire threat that over 100 First Nations communities face throughout the province as a result of the dead trees. Buffer zones have to be established around the communities. In addition, aggressive silviculture is required to shorten the recovery time and restore the forests.
Further sessions of the conference will address the issues of diversification of the forest economy, management strategies for the forests, and what the future will hold for communities in regards to economic benefits from the resource.
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Posted by: owl on June 11 2008 10:15 AM
Now Traditional Knowledge is a trade like Welding or Book Keeping. Better start checking the credentials of the TK people because lots of these guys are BS artists as well. BS and TK people are hard to tell apart sometime.