Critics say clearcutting in Alberta won't stop pine beetle

Alberta is clearcutting huge parcels of land in Kananaskis Country to get ahead of the devastating mountain pine beetle, but critics say that solution is worse than the problem.

"We think sustainable harvesting is the best way to guard against the dangers of pine beetles and forest fires," said Ted Morton, minister of sustainable resource development, Friday as he got ready to fly over southwestern parts of the province where pre-emptive logging has been approved to try to stop the insect.

The mountain pine beetle has already devoured billions of trees in B.C. and is expected to wipe out 80 per cent of the province's pines by 2013. The race is on to stop its expansion eastward.

But many environmentalists and biologists claim there is no real threat to Alberta's forests from the insect.

"Essentially what you are doing is creating a solution that is worse than the problem," said Ralph Cartar, entomologist at the University of Calgary. "You are removing the forest in the event that a few trees might be lost to pine beetles."

He said trees in the Kananaskis region, about 90 kilometres west of Calgary, are less susceptible to the voracious beetle because they are smaller and grow at a slower speed than the trees in B.C.

"It makes a huge difference because it is the amount of food for these beetles to survive and to reproduce. We just don't have the food here for them to thrive like they do in B.C.," he explained.

That kind of thinking has put B.C. forests on the brink of devastation, said Morton, defending the aggressive policy.

"The people that are saying don't do anything, let nature takes its way. That was the advice they were giving in British Columbia 10 years ago," he said.