SMITHERS, Alta. – The mountain pine beetle has caused millions of dollars in damage to the British Columbia forest industry, but it’s also permanently changed cattle grazing in the pine forest.
The dying pine trees blow onto fence lines and across roads like a mad game of pick-up sticks, creating thousands of dollars of damage to fence lines and roads.
Areas of solid trees that created natural fence lines have been logged, forcing cattle producers to build hundreds of kilometres of new fences.
Now there’s concern the carpet of pine needles from the dead trees can cause cattle to abort.
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“It’s a catastrophe,” said David Haywood-Farmer, chair of the British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association land stewardship committee, during the group’s annual meeting.
Few areas of the province have been unaffected by the mountain pine beetle. It’s estimated 80 percent of the commercially usable pine in the central and southern Interior will be killed by 2013.
More than half of that pine will be dead by this summer.
Ranchers who graze cattle through these stands of timber have been struggling to cope with the rapid changes the pine beetle brings.
Before the beetles, ranchers checked and repaired fence lines each spring. The thousands of dead trees now scattered across the mountain ranges are easily blown over by the wind and ranchers must check fences at least twice a month.
“Fence maintenance for a big ranch is a huge job. The trees are coming down in an unregular basis,” Haywood-Farmer said.
Producers face a Herculean task in clearing giant pine trees with their massive span of sharp branches, repairing fence wires and then sorting cattle that have become mixed with the neighbours’ herds every week.
It’s not as easy as clearing the trees along the fence line, Haywood-Farmer said.
In B.C., ranchers and logging companies must pay the government a stumpage fee for each tree they cut. Depending on the area, a rancher would pay $10 to $25 for each tree logged on crown land.
Add the cost of logging and trucking trees to a mill and it doesn’t pay to log trees damaged by the mountain pine beetle.
“We’re not trying to make money going out to log. We’re trying to save an infrastructure we’re using to maintain our cattle,” he said.
Cattle producers are asking the government to reduce the stumpage fee for trees damaged by pine beetles and help them find other ways to save their fences.
Bob Flinton, co-ordinator with the land stewardship committee, said producers hope a pilot project to log timber and leave it on the land may be an option. Before it’s approved they must be sure the dry trees don’t create a significant fire hazard when gathered into piles.
“With the high stumpage it’s probably the most economical and most feasible right now.”
Haywood-Farmer said it’s urgent that changes be made soon before fences are ruined beyond saving.
“If we don’t’ get fence line protection, we’ll be in a hell of a mess.”
Changes must also be made to reforestation legislation, which now requires that any large logged areas be replanted, including fence lines.
Shirley Hamblin, a rancher from Houston, B.C., said the mountain pine beetle has created havoc on her northern ranch where entire swaths of pine have died and have been logged by forest companies.
Stands of trees that once acted as natural barriers are now open ranges where cattle wander. The cleared area gives cattle ranchers more temporary grazing until replanted trees grow, but the area must all be fenced.
“I’m working on six kilometres of fence row replacing a barrier and we’re maintaining more fence,” Hamblin said.
She said intense logging has forced her to rethink how pastures are managed and divided.
The provincial government has allotted $1.2 million a year for the next two years to help offset the cost of replacing the natural barrier fences. All other areas of aid must be exhausted before applying for the fence funding.
Frantic efforts to salvage lumber created tension between ranchers and forest companies. Hamblin said she used to have a good working relationship with forestry officials, but now she barely gets to know them and discuss logging plans before they are whisked away to deal with another crisis area.
“We used to have the ability to network. Now we don’t know who we’re dealing with anymore.”
An emerging problem is possible abortion in cattle that graze in grassed areas thick with pine needles.
Haywood-Farmer said no definitive studies have been conducted, but there is anecdotal evidence to suggest more cattle are aborting and they’re pointing at pine needle poisoning.
“It’s a grave concern. It’s an unknown. We’ve never gone into our summer ranges with this kind of disaster,” he said. “Mountain pine beetle issues have been a big struggle.”
