I was environment minister in Alberta in 1999, when mountain pine beetles were first discovered in British Columbia
Since the horrific fire swept through Jasper National Park last week, I’ve been reflecting on my time in government. The fire has been devastating for those live, work or have businesses in the park, and has caused disappointment to thousands of tourists.
In 1999, I was environment minister in Alberta. In the 1990s, mountain pine beetles were first discovered in a park in British Columbia. These beetles are an invasive destructive tree pest – it takes only one to kill a tree. If you drive through the interior of British Columbia, you will see large areas of dead trees with a red colour which eventually turn grey. After devastating forests in B.C.
In 1999, this was not a popular approach with the public. The idea of cutting down or burning healthy forests was unpalatable to many people, including many vocal forest supporters and environmentalists who felt that the. So the forests were left intact, which was the first failure of public policy. For the Jasper fire, there will be predictable voices that will say it is caused by climate change. That may be a contributing factor. But if the cause of the fires were primarily climate change, we would expect diseased forests and large wildfires in Sweden and Finland – but that’s not the case. These countries have less disease and fewer fires because they practice science-based forestry. A big part of today’s problem could have been avoided by policy action 30 some years ago.
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