Mistake in analysis gave 'billion-dollar' beetle headstart

BY FRED LAWRENCE

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

An incorrect identification in 1990 gave the brown longhorn spruce beetle, Tetropium fuscum, (BLSB) an eight-year headstart to chew and spread its way through Nova Scotia woodlands.

Greg Cunningham is lead specialist of Forest Pest Management for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and he’s based in Fredericton N.B. Cunningham said in a recent interview that an incorrect diagnosis of a sample collected near Halifax in 1990 stayed, in a sealed container, in the CFIA Ottawa lab for Pest Management for nearly a decade before it was compared to 1998 specimens. Those samples were taken before and after the 1999 hurricane that wiped out most of Point Pleasant Park near Halifax and subsequently unleashed the foreign insect into the province's mainland forests.

Cunningham said at least 13 sites have been confirmed throughout the province and efforts are being made to contain the beetle from spreading further. ”We were under the assumption that our trees were being killed by a native beetle,” he said.

Cunningham said BSLB poses a “serious threat” to the Boreal forest, noting there are no known natural checks and balances to control the foreign pest in Nova Scotia. “We’re taking this very seriously and hope through our current efforts to reduce the spread as fast as we can,” he said.

Eradication policies to slow the spread of BLSB include introducing a genetically modified synthetic pheromone into the beetle's known or suspected habitat to “confuse the beetle during its sexually active state,” Cunningham said, but so far findings are inconclusive. Other options include massive aerial spray programs, which are questionable as the beetle lives under the tree bark; and intensive logging of areas known or believed to be potentially at risk from infestation.

Beetle ‘just dropped in like an alien’

Gina Penny is the lead provincial entomologist for the Department of Natural Resources and is based in Shubenacadie. Penny said, “we’re taking this very seriously and are working with the CFIA to try and delineate exactly where the beetle is, and where it’s spreading.”

Penny said the chances of the foreign beetle interbreeding with the native larch beetle “are slim, but definitely not impossible. BLSB is new to the area, it just dropped in like an alien, so to-date there hasn’t been time for other insects to feed on it and control its reproduction,” she said.

BSLB is known to exist throughout continental Europe, Scandinavia and parts of Asia and was brought to the region through the shipping of wood materials to ports all along the Eastern Seaboard of North America.

Penny acknowledges that the pest causing all the fuss was here as long as a decade ago yet went undetected. “Hindsight is always 20/20,” she said. “Decisions were made (at the time) that were not that good, but we have to move forward to try and control the situation before it spreads any further.”

‘Houston, we have a problem’

Stephen Thompson operates Elmsdale Lumber and said he was involved in the secondary BSLB discovery in 1998 that led to the creature's eventual proper identification. Thompson was cruising through the Halifax area with Greg Cunningham from the CFIA and saw what he thought to be a new pest killing spruce trees.

“I turned my head toward Point Pleasant Park and said to Greg, 'what's going on over there, we've got some insects,' but at first they looked like native beetles. At that time North America was under duress to record invasive species because it was happening on a global level.”

After closer inspection and consultation with leading experts, Thompson said, “ I called the CFIA in Ottawa and said, 'Houston, we have a problem.'”

Even then, Thompson said there was little reason to expect the insect was a foreign species. “There are so many bugs and pests in our forests that are native, you have to be a highly-trained scientist to tell the difference.”

Lab results from samples sent to Ottawa proved positive for BSLB and it has been spreading its wings to devour sick and healthy spruce trees ever since.

Penny said initially scientists thought after the beetle bores a hole in a healthy tree the resulting sap flow would suffocate and kill the pest, but now that theory is also in doubt. “There are over 600 traps throughout the province,” she said. “This is a huge issue and we’re trying to figure out where the beetle is and how far it has spread. We hope to have this information by the fall.”

Compared to the mountain pine beetle devastating forests throughout British Columbia, Penny said BSLB moves at a much slower pace. “That's one thing we can be thankful for, I guess, but it’s a billion-dollar industry here. There are a lot of concerned people and lots of livelihoods at stake.”

Alarm bells in local region

As reported in The Hants Journal last week, numerous small woodlot owners in the Mines Road area of Falmouth and Leminster received a Notice of Prohibition of Movement of spruce logs from their properties from the CFIA and that has set off alarm bells throughout the local region.

“I don't see how they can tell us what we can and can't do on our own land,” said Bernard Curry, one of many woodlot owners affected by the new quarantine zone. “This is just another way for the American companies to keep on stripping everything in sight. What these people are doing to our forests shouldn't be allowed,” he said. “They're taking everything.”

Local residents have noticed a greater number of log trucks hauling loads 24 hours a day over the past several weeks. Cunningham said, “tt could be that some companies knew the quarantine area was going to expanded and had cut logs ahead of time.”

Colin Hughes of New Ross says the Wagner Group, which controls 25,000 acres of woodland formerly owned by Kimberly Clarke, are cutting faster than ever in the area. “I don't think they’re working in the best interests of the Nova Scotia people,” Hughes said.

“We leave green belts and wilderness habitat areas wherever we cut, but all you have to do is go and look at what they’re doing; what they’re cutting shouldn’t be allowed. How are they getting away with it? What's going on here is not right,” he said.

Kings-Hants MP Scott Brison said the infestation of BSLB is probably the result of climate change and overzealous scientists. “I suspect this is just another result of global warming. We don't have to look too far to see how climate change is affecting everything from bird migrations to new infestations of foreign insects across the country. It's awful stuff. And it could be that the scientists involved are being a bit overcautious after the Point Pleasant Park scare,” Brison said

Representatives from the Wagner company and local MLA Chuck Porter could not be reached for comment by press time.