Modeling the effect of changing market conditions on mountain pine beetle salvage harvesting and structural changes in the British Columbia forest products industry

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 1806-1820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olaf Schwab ◽  
Thomas Maness ◽  
Gary Bull ◽  
Don Roberts
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Forest Sector ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
Salvage Harvesting

This paper describes the development and implementation of Cambium, an agent-based forest sector model for strategic analysis. This model is designed as a decision-support tool for assessing the effects that changes in product demand and resource inventories can have on the structure and economic viability of the forest sector. Cambium models aggregate product supply as an emergent property of individual companies’ production decisions and stand-level ecological processes. Modeling the forest-products sector as a group of interacting autonomous economic agents makes it possible to include production capacity dynamics and the potential for mill insolvencies as factors in analyzing the effects of market and forest inventory based disturbances. The utility of this model is tested by assessing the impacts of a market downturn in the US forest products market on forest industry structure and mountain pine beetle ( Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) salvage harvesting in British Columbia, Canada. Simulation results indicate a significant medium-term timber supply shortage; reduced stumpage revenues; intensive cost competition among primary wood-products manufacturers; and a large number of insolvencies in the panel, lumber, and pulp sectors.

Mountain pine beetle, global markets, and the British Columbia forest economy

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 1313-1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brant Abbott ◽  
Brad Stennes ◽  
G. Cornelis van Kooten
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
The United States ◽  
Timber Supply ◽  
Trade Model ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Export Tax ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
Near Term

A number of near-term timber supply shocks are projected to impact global forest product markets, particularly mountain pine beetle induced timber reductions, a Russian log export tax, and timber supply increases from plantation forests in the Southern Hemisphere and Sweden. We examined their effect on a number of global jurisdictions using a dynamic global forest products trade model that separates British Columbia (BC) into coastal and interior forest sectors. The results suggest that global increases in plantation timber would have negligible effects on BC log and lumber markets, that the Russian tax would have minor effects on this market, and that the beetle-induced timber supply drop would moderately increase BC prices (primarily log prices). In the United States South, lumber and log prices could rise as a result of the mountain pine beetle, while other shocks will have a negligible impact on prices. Yet, lumber production will fall because log prices will increase substantially more than lumber prices. Japan could be impacted much more than other regions by the Russian tax on log exports. In the absence of export taxes, a beetle-induced timber shortage would cause lumber production in Japan to rise (as Japan can access nearby Russian logs), while the export tax would reduce lumber production because log prices rise disproportionately more than in other regions.

Entomocorticium dendroctoni gen. et sp. nov. (Basidiomycotina), a possible nutritional symbiote of the mountain pine beetle in lodgepole pine in British Columbia

1987 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. S. Whitney ◽  
R. J. Bandoni ◽  
F. Oberwinkler
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Bark Beetle ◽  
Pinus Contorta ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Lodgepole Pine ◽  
Pine Bark ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
Blue Stain Fungi ◽  
Blue Stain

A new basidiomycete, Entomocorticium dendroctoni Whitn., Band. & Oberw., gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated. This cryptic fungus intermingles with blue stain fungi and produces abundant essentially sessile basidiospores in the galleries and pupal chambers of the mountain pine bark beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins Coleoptera: Scolytidae) in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia Engelm.). The insect apparently disseminates the fungus. Experimentally, young partially insectary reared adult beetles fed E. dendroctoni produced 19% more eggs than beetles fed the blue stain fungi.

Reduction of mountain pine beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) attacks by verbenone in lodgepole pine stands in British Columbia

1989 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. S. Lindgren ◽  
J. H. Borden ◽  
G. H. Cushon ◽  
L. J. Chong ◽  
C. J. Higgins
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Lodgepole Pine ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Pine Stands ◽  
Release Devices

The effect of the aggregation-inhibiting pheromone verbenone on mountain pine beetle attacks in lodgepole pine stands was assessed by affixing verbenone release devices on trees on a 10 × 10 m grid. In one experiment, aggregation to trees baited with an attractive combination of trans-verbenol, exo-brevicomin, and myrcene was reduced in verbenone-treated blocks compared with control blocks (attractive baits only). The mean number of trees with mass attacks (≥31.3 attacks/m2), mean percentage of available trees mass attacked, and mean total number of trees infested were reduced by 74.3, 66.7, and 58.5%, respectively. The ratio of 1987 attacks to 1986 attacks was reduced from 14.0 to 2.6. In a second experiment, using no attractive baits, verbenone caused similar but nonsignificant reductions. The mean number of trees with mass attacks, mean percentage of available trees mass attacked, and mean total number of trees infested were reduced by 75.2, 53.5, and 62.1%, respectively. The 1987 to 1986 attack ratio was reduced from 13.2 in control blocks to 0.2 in the verbenone-treated blocks, and the percentage of trees that were infested but not mass attacked was significantly increased, from 45.7% in the control blocks to 63.2% in the verbenone-treated blocks. We conclude that verbenone shows promise as a management tool for controlling the mountain pine beetle.

Distribution and severity of white pine blister rust and mountain pine beetle on whitebark pine in British Columbia

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1051-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M Campbell ◽  
Joseph A Antos
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Stand Structure ◽  
The United States ◽  
Whitebark Pine ◽  
White Pine Blister Rust ◽  
White Pine ◽  
Blister Rust ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle

A major decline in the abundance of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) has recently occurred in the United States, primarily as a result of white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola J.C. Fisch. ex Raben.). However, no information on the status of whitebark pine in British Columbia, Canada, was available. We sampled 54 subalpine stands in British Columbia, examining all whitebark pine trees within plots for evidence of blister rust and mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk.) damage. About 21% of all whitebark pine stems were dead, and blister rust was the most important agent of mortality. Of all living trees sampled, 27% had obvious blister rust infection (cankers), but actual incidence was suspected of being as high as 44% (using all evidence of blister rust). Blister rust incidence and whitebark pine mortality were significantly related to differences in stand structure and the presence of Ribes spp., but relationships with local climate and site variables were absent or weak. The lack of strong relationships with climate suggests favourable conditions for the spread of the disease throughout most of British Columbia. Very little evidence of mountain pine beetle was found. Overall, the prospects for whitebark pine in British Columbia do not appear good; a large reduction in population levels seems imminent.

Semiochemicals for the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonusponderosae (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), in British Columbia: baited-tree studies

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Borden ◽  
J. E. Conn ◽  
L. M. Friskie ◽  
B. E. Scott ◽  
L. J. Chong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Attack Rate ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
Lodgepole Pines

Lodgepole pines, Pinuscontorta var. latifolia Engelm., in three interior British Columbia locations were baited with six monoterpenes alone or combined, and various combinations of the beetle-produced volatiles trans-verbenol, exo-brevicomin, and 3-caren-10-ol. Trees baited with trans-verbenol, exo brevicomin, and the monoterpene 3-carene sustained higher attack densities by the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonusponderosae Hopkins, and were surrounded by more attacked trees than trees baited with trans-verbenol and 3-carene or unbaited controls. Myrcene was apparently the best of six monoterpenes as a synergist for trans-verbenol. 3-Caren-10-ol appeared to have some activity in an early test but did not prove to be an attractive pheromone in extensive studies. In a 17-ha portion of an infestation, treatment of 99 trees with 3-carene and trans-verbenol apparently caused a higher attack rate, resulting in 56.4% of the available green trees being attacked, as opposed to 22.3% of the available trees in the 14-ha unbaited area. These data as well as the high attack rates associated with trees which also had an exo-brevicomin bait suggest that semiochemicals could be used to contain D. ponderosae infestations and to attract beetles to lethal trap trees.

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