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Pine Beetles Running Out of Food?

Vancouver, BC -The Mountain Pine Beetles that feasted on British Columbia’s forests are running out of food, a recent report by The Globe and Mail confirmed.

Beetles in the western side of the Rocky Mountains have fundamentally eaten themselves out of house and home, the Globe reported Doug Routledge, vice-president of the Council of Forest Industries as saying. The beetles are running out of food, so the populations are beginning to crash.

The Globe further reported that the bulk of the infestation is anticipated to end within three to five years, while the process of harvesting all the wood damaged by the beetles will take significantly longer.

The BC Ministry of Forests and Range and the Council of Forest Industries estimate the infestation has affected approximately 710 million cubic metres of timber in BC.

Two cold snaps in Alberta in January and February are hoped to have helped kill off a significant number of beetles that have done fatal damage to three million pines in the province.