Province increases funding for mountain pine beetle program
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EDMONTON, AB — The provincial government is investing an additional $5 million to help manage mountain pine beetles in Alberta.
A release from the province Thursday morning revealed the province has increased the annual budget to its mountain pine beetle management program to $30 million through 2022-2023.
“The cost of doing nothing is not acceptable,” said Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, in a statement. “We campaigned on this promise and we are reversing four years of the previous government’s cuts. The federal government needs to step up and protect Western Canada’s forests. Alberta and Saskatchewan are both funding mountain pine beetle programming and we will continue to press Ottawa to take this seriously.”
Mountain pine beetles were observed in British Columbia in the 1990s, and have spread to forests in Alberta, attacking pine trees. In addition to the economic impact (the value of pine trees susceptible to the insect is $11 billion), the attacked trees also pose a wildfire risk.
