Some forestry industry members vow to fight any attempt to extend a quarantine of their woodlands to contain a pesky beetle in the Halifax region.

The brown spruce longhorn beetle, which destroys some spruce trees, has been found in areas outside a quarantine zone.

Woodlot owners and others in the forestry industry shared their concerns at Wednesday's meeting in Lawrencetown.
(CBC)

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency worries that normal logging practices could cause the beetle to spread and plans to expand the zone.

But that would mean no logging, and many in the forestry industry say they would lose their jobs.

"They come in with a heavy-handed approach now to overregulate," Brad Gillroy said at a gathering of woodlot owners in Lawrencetown on Wednesday night. "As a result, we're going to suffer."

The expanded quarantine area would cover a region the size of Prince Edward Island. No one would be allowed to cut trees in the area without a permit, which many in the industry say is almost impossible to get.

Forestry specialists with the inspection agency say the beetle was found in 18 new areas outside the quarantine zone in 2006, up from seven the year before. They say the bug may have flown or travelled from log to log.

Some scientists dispute the inspection agency's fears about the beetle, saying the bug only eats dying trees and that it's not spreading at all.

"Scientists need to take it apart and really examine the fundamentals of the claim because we don't think they stand up," said Ian Taylor, president of Friends of Point Pleasant Park, the Halifax park where the beetle was first discovered in 1999.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency promises a decision soon about whether it will expand the quarantine area.