Pine Beetle being killed off in Alberta, BC not so lucky
News1130, Canadian Press, March 20th, 2009 [here]
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - It’s too late for BC, but new scientific data from the Canadian Forest Service suggests frigid temperatures this [record cold] winter have killed off 95 per cent of the mountain pine beetles in southern Alberta and the mountain parks and about 90 per cent in northern Alberta.
The numbers are promising, but the province won’t know until May if the death rate was high enough to stop the destructive bugs from continuing to spread to healthy trees.
The beetles threaten about 60-thousand square kilometres of Alberta pine forests.