An idea submitted by four staff in the Prince George forest region has netted them $2,000 each from the employee recognition program.

The winners are Stuart Taylor of the regional office and Lance Mitchell, Matt Wiess and John Degagne of the Fort St. James district. John has since moved to the Vanderhoof district.

The four won for a computer model they developed to plan harvesting and treatment of beetle-infested areas. Fort St. James District is using it and other districts with large beetle infestations likely will adopt it.

"Before you ever set foot on the ground you can use the model to tell you which areas need attention first," Lance explained.

The model works by combining Geographic Information System information on known infestations and stand susceptibility with environmental and operational factors such as riparian areas and wildlife tree patches to produce a risk rating. The rating of each epicentre (the tree or trees beetles originate from in a forest stand) allows staff to accurately direct scarce resources to the high priority areas.

Considering there are over 18,000 epicentres in the Fort St. James district alone, more accuracy will save time and dollars—millions of dollars.

"The new system also sets targets, so you can tell if you’re making progress with your beetle control efforts," added Mitchell.

For more information contact Lance Mitchell or Matt Weiss at 250 996-5200.

Bugs Across the Border: Sharing Our Success with the U.S.
Submitted by: Val Miller and Juliet Craig, Nelson Forest Region

Bugs are expanding throughout the Nelson Forest Region and staff are grinning from ear to ear. The Forest Service excited about large, healthy insect populations? How can this be?

If you’re involved in the management of invasive non-native plant species, insects are the good guys, attacking and causing the decline of unwanted weeds. Known as biological control, the process involves the introduction of natural predators of a weed from its country of origin. Before biocontrol agents can be released, they are screened to ensure that they will only attack the target weed and not related native species, agricultural crops, or your favourite garden plants. The Forest Service participates in several International Biocontrol Consortia, groups of Provincial, Federal, State, U.S. Federal and University organisations who work together to pursue and establish new biocontrol agents for various weed species across North America.

A recent success in the "War on Weeds" in the Nelson Forest Region has been the significant decline of Dalmatian toadflax populations due to the introduction and rapid spread of the biological control agent, Mecinus janthinus. Dalmatian toadflax, with its yellow snapdragon-like flowers has invaded grasslands, roadsides and other disturbed areas in British Columbia. Like other non-native invasive plant species, this weed has impacted biodiversity, reduced forage for wildlife, and reduced grazing opportunities for cattle ranchers.

Mecinus janthinus, a stem-boring weevil that kills toadflax through both adult and larval feeding activity, was imported from Europe and first released in BC in 1991. Since 1994, this weevil has been introduced to 115 sites in the Nelson Forest Region. Sites that were once dense stands of tall healthy toadflax are now reduced to only a few small stunted plants (see photos). These impacts and large Mecinus populations not only have Forest Service staff excited but have drawn international attention. Officials in the United States are watching progress with keen interest since they have only recently begun releasing the Mecinus weevil.

The large healthy Mecinus populations in British Columbia have allowed Forest Service to offer some surplus weevils to the United States for their use in biocontrol. On June 12^th, staff from Nelson Forest Region joined representatives from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and the University of Lethbridge to collect insects and share success stories of biological control of Dalmatian toadflax. During this field visit and through other collection activities this year, the Nelson Region provided 16,000 Mecinus janthinus insects to the USDA for release at various sites in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington.

www.for.gov.bc.ca/pab/news/features/beetles/index.htm