Mechanical Fall & Burn: Targeting Bark Beetle 

A massive outbreak of mountain pine beetle (MPB) resulted in the loss of millions of hectares of pine forest in BC over the next 15 years. Now, in northern Alberta, MPB continue to attack the boreal forest and left unmanaged, could devastate Alberta's pine forest and spread eastward across Canada's boreal region.

Mechanical fall and burn is a treatment anticipated to slow the spread of MPB by eliminating infected trees. In remote areas without road access, heavy equipment must walk for kilometers through the forest, cutting their own trails and following GPS coordinates of where beetle infestations reside. Fuel and supplies are flown in by helicopter. Moving infected trees for utilization is not a viable option ecologically or economically, and could create more destructive impacts, so trees must be burned on site.

For more education, National Geographic and a team of researchers visited our work site to film and interview workers with the purpose of creating an informal documentary.

Find the YouTube video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4xuBRzqGw8

For National Geographic subscribers, the article,
"The Bug that's Eating the Woods" can be found searching here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/