Landowners in western Alberta put no-vacancy signs on their pines in hopes of keeping mountain pine beetles at bay
WETASKIWIN, Alta. — Just down the road from Rocky Cartier’s Road Apple Ranch are dead, red pine trees in fields, along roads and in shelterbelts. A few years earlier the mountain pine beetles flew into the area and the trees slowly died.
With the help of a small, white package of pheromone stapled to the towering pine trees shading his house and outbuildings, Cartier hopes to convince the mountain pine beetles to leave his trees alone.
“I am trying to save the ones around the yard,” said Cartier, who has bought 10 packages of Verbenone for the fourth year.
“These were planted by hand 50 years ago. What can I do?”
Cartier was just one of 60 people who picked up 1,500 Verbenone packages from the Wetaskiwin County office at the end of June. The county is one of a handful of municipalities, mainly in western parts of the province, encouraging landowners to protect pine trees from the destructive pests.
“The package stapled to the tree is like driving past a motel with a no-vacancy sign,” said Stephen Majek, director of agricultural services with Wetaskiwin County.
“The pheromones given off by the package tell the beetles there is no room and they keep flying,’’ said Majek as he gave out the packages to the steady stream of landowners.
Wetaskiwin was one of the first municipalities in the province to sell pheromone packages to their residents in an attempt to save the pine trees. Wetaskiwin County is a long horizontal county from just east of Highway 2 and west to the Rocky Mountains. Most of the infected pine trees are on the west side of the county, although a mountain pine beetle was spotted on a tree just one kilometre outside Wetaskiwin.
Four years ago, county staff found 35 sites with confirmed mountain pine beetle infections and along with forestry officials, put on a seminar at Yeoford Community Centre. During the day everyone went outside to inspect, and see the damaged and infected pine trees around the small hall. There are now at least 43 confirmed sites of the mountain pine beetle. Not willing to watch all the pine trees disappear, Majek organized an information session and ordered pheromone packages for residents.
He now receives a grant from the province for helping with the costs of shipping the packages and scouting possible new sites.
Wetaskiwin County residents pay $5 a package and non-residents pay $10. It costs Majek $10 for each package.
About the size of a grain of rice, mountain pine beetles were blown into Alberta from British Columbia in the early 2000s. Millions of acres of pine trees are dead in British Columbia and the pests are slowly moving south and east across Alberta.
From late June to mid-August the pests bore into their pine tree homes and then fly off looking for new pine trees to attack. The Verbenone pheromone package tells the beetles there are already beetles in the tree.
Bryan Kasha of Eckville bought 50 packages for more than 100 trees in his yard.
“I don’t want the trees to die. The beetles are getting close to us.”
The packages are stapled about 2.5 metres above the ground on the north side of the trees, away from direct sunlight.
Amy Holtst of Warburg isn’t taking any chances and bought 13 packages for her 13 remaining pine trees. She lost her largest pine tree to mountain pine beetles and wants to protect the rest.
“I take a day off work and come and get my chemicals every year. It is a small price to pay to save my trees. It costs $130 to save my trees. That is cheaper than $1,200 to take down one dead one,” said Holtst.
Darrell Williamson of Millet bought one package to place on the lone pine tree in his yard. The towering tree was the reason he bought the lot and wanted to protect it from the beetles.
“I want to keep that tree alive,” said Williamson.
A combination of two cold winters, a cold spring and the use of the pheromone packages may have slowed the spread, said Majek.
“I think it will be enough to save the trees. It is not getting any worse in the county.”
Toso Bozic, a former provincial tree specialist, now with his own private company, Yard Whispers, said the success of the pheromone packages depends on the severity of the infestation.
“When you have millions of mountain pine beetles, they don’t care. Don’t even try with acres of trees,” said Bozic of Edmonton.
The pheromone packages are designed to protect trees in shelterbelts and in areas with fewer pine trees.
“Buy and put the pouches in shelterbelts in yards. I would suggest it can be very effective. The goal is to protect older, mature shelterbelts,” he said.
“If you have shelterbelts, absolutely do it.”
