Early detection strategy aimed at tracking mountain pine beetle

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B.C.'s forests would greatly benefit from the use of an airborne remote sensing strategy aimed at early detection of mountain pine beetle infestations before they spread to epidemic proportions, according to SFU geographer Arthur Roberts. His research has determined that it is possible to track the pests before they fly and subsequently monitor their spread across several generations.

Such a strategy would help forest companies to better plan when and where to cut infested trees for maximum profit and benefit, and assist resource managers in their assessment and mitigation of forest fire risk, Roberts says.

For the past several years the professor and pilot has flown an SFU research plane - modified for high-altitude aerial surveying - over areas of B.C.'s central interior, using time sequential high-resolution aerial imagery to determine changes in everything from salmon stocks to the devastating presence of the mountain pine beetle. Roberts' latest finding comes after analysing data following monthly flights over the same densely treed study areas in the Cariboo. The flights were conducted in the spring and summer months of 2002 and 2003. His time sequential images track the various stages of infestation and enable him to trace an individual tree back to when it was first infested.

Roberts' research shows it is possible to determine the year of mortality for infested trees for the three preceding years prior to the season in which the aerial imagery was flown. He points out that such estimates of the "shelf life" or timber usefulness of infested trees, based on time since mortality, are really unknown but likely range from five to seven years. "It takes about 15 years for dead trees to fall, and once they do they become potent fire hazards," he adds. Improving shelf life estimates will permit more cost effective cutting of infected trees, also called bugwood, as well as planning for reduction of forest fire hazards.

Roberts says B.C.'s remote sensing efforts only provide information to forest companies after the fact. "It would be useful during the process of applying for licenses for their cut blocks (which happens normally in August) to have as accurate information as possible," notes Roberts, whose research was funded by the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Forestry Innovation Investment, the Forest Investment Account and West Fraser Mills Ltd.

Roberts and colleague Steven Steinberg, who is SFU's first Fulbright chair in airborne remote sensing, plan to head back into the skies over B.C. this spring. Steinberg, an associate professor in environmental and natural resource sciences at Humboldt State University, has spent over a decade in applied research and teaching in remote sensing and GIS. The two are also studying seasonal environmental changes to coastal eel grass, which could have an effect on some fish species as well as migratory birds.

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Websites:
B.C. Ministry of Forests: www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/mountain_pine_beetle/
Forestry Innovation Investment: www.forestry-innovation.bc.ca/
The Forest Invest Account: www.for.gov.bc.ca/hcp/fia/product_development.htm