Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Protect Vancouver Island as an Adventure Travel Paradise
The Government of Canada recently announced measures to fight the Mountain Pine Beetle. This small, dark-coloured nsect has had a devastating free lunch in British Columbia and on Vancouver Island since 1910. The current outbreak of Mountain Pine Beetle in B.C. is the largest that Canada has ever seen. It attacks and kills standing, living, lodgepole pine trees. It generally completes its life cycle in one year. In mid-summer, large numbers of adult female beetles attack new trees by boring through the bark to the sapwood. They construct vertical galleries in the phloem between the bark and the sapwood where, after the males join them, they mate and the females deposit their eggs. The beetles introduce a bluestain fungus into the sapwood of the tree that prevents the tree from repelling and killing the attacking beetles with pitch flow. It also blocks water and nutrient translocation within the tree. The joint action of larval feeding and fungal colonization kills the host tree within a few weeks of successful attack.
The forest industry is a very important contributor to the Canadian economy and Canada is the world's largest exporter of forest products, with about one third of its potential harvest coming from British Columbia. Canada has 10 percent of the world's forests, including 30 percent of the world's boreal forests. Since forests provide countless economic benefits for many communities and contribute to the well-being and health of Canadians and the environment it is important to initiate discussions and talks on British Columbia's past and present forest problems that will lead into debate on things we can do today to protect this beautiful province and Vancouver Island as an adventure paradise for our next generation to enjoy. Please check out the website: buymybricshares.com to read more information about another British Columbia disaster. A BRIC Share Certificate framed in Genuine BC Pine Beetle Ravaged Wood is also available on eBay. Check out eBay for "BRIC Share".
