THOUSANDS of red spruce trees will be chopped down in a park in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, starting next week in a bid to prevent a Eurasian beetle from destroying
much of North America鈥檚 boreal forest.
The brown spruce longhorn beetle, Tetropium fuscum, is thought to
have arrived from Europe in cheap packing wood, now banned, via Halifax鈥檚
container terminal, which is right next to the park. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a potential
ecological catastrophe,鈥� says Bill Freedman, an ecologist at Dalhousie
University in Halifax and a member of the task force charged with deciding what
to do about the infestation. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much bigger than Dutch elm鈥�, the fungal
disease that has killed more than 80 per cent of Britain鈥檚 elm trees since the
1960s.
The beetle, which in Europe reportedly only feeds on dead wood, seems to be
consuming healthy trees in the park. 快猫短视频s, who only identified the beetle
in the last year, fear that if it spreads it could pose a serious threat to the
continent鈥檚 forests. In addition to red spruce, its main victim and the mainstay
of maritime Canada鈥檚 lumber industry, the beetle has been found boring into
healthy white and black spruce, found coast to coast in Canada and across much
of the US, says Freedman.
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He supports the decision to chop down and incinerate the 10 000 affected
trees, about a third of all the red spruce in the 75-hectare Point Pleasant
Park. 鈥淚t should have been done sooner than this,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 am astonished
it鈥檚 taken so long.鈥� The cull will continue for several years until all the
affected trees are destroyed.
Others believe that the action is too hasty, and the park is being cleared
unnecessarily. Edith Angelopolous, an entomologist also at Dalhousie, points out
that no one really knows how far the beetle, known to be a strong flyer, has
travelled. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if it鈥檚 in the whole province,鈥� she says.
The beetle has already been found in 22 sites beyond the park, though so far
none has been found outside the city.
Angelopolous also suggests that natural predators, such as wasps and
woodpeckers, will eventually bring the interloper under control. There are also
concerns that cutting the trees in midsummer, when the beetles are most likely
to take flight, may disperse them even further.