12 May 2004

VANCOUVER: Years of chronic drought, a bark beetle infestation that has killed millions of trees, high March temperatures that prematurely melted mountain snow and the expectation of a dry summer are conspiring to make 2004 another summer of fire in British Columbia, warns the founder of international research institute Global Forest Science.

"BC is part of large region extending south to Arizona and New Mexico that is extremely vulnerable to fire this summer," says tree expert Dr. Reese Halter, who is monitoring climate patterning data from Sun Micro Systems and the US-based Federal Bureau of Land Management. "Beetle infestations have killed millions of trees that are now perfect kindling and the spring has been dry and getting warmer fast. In BC alone, beetles have killed enough trees to build 3.3 million homes or supply the entire US housing market for two years. That's a big wood pile ready to burn."

Halter says while rural areas can take short-term precautions to help fireproof communities, the real solutions are long-term - including understanding better the basic science of healthy forests and reviewing land use policies that manage BC's vast forest reserves.

"Towns will need to ensure that their fire guards are in place and that homeowners remove vegetation close to their homes," says Halter. "However, the fire threat is heightened by our limited understanding of viable forest ecology, the unintended negative impact of fire suppression and our stretched forest management resources. These are long-term fixes that become even more urgent as we grapple with global warming."

Halter says fire is a normal and critical element of a healthy forest ecosystem. Decades of fire suppression, however, have modified the forest, allowing smaller, fire-susceptible trees to grow and bark beetles, normally kept in check by fire, to proliferate. Global climate change means British Columbians will have to get used to more summer fires, he adds.

Tuscon and Banff-based Global Forest Science (www.globalforestscience.org) is a forest biology research institute. With an international multi-disciplinary team of 165 scientists, Global Forest Science is a world leader in forest science research and has often been likened to the Red Adair's of the forest biology world. Global Forest Sciences' many victories ranging from legislation to protect the threatened westslope cutthroat trout of British Columbia, protection of the world's largest ant colony, opening an international insect quarantine facility and helping to save New Zealand's multi billion dollar forestry and agriculture industries from the Australian painted apple moth. Global Forest Science is also dedicated to children's ecological education - visit GFAwesome.
(www.gfawesome.org)

For more information, please contact:
Email: info@globalforestscience.org
Phone: 818.851.9682