Quesnel by the numbers

• Location: In the Cariboo Region of B.C. Interior, about 120 km south of Prince George and 400 km north of Kamloops
• Population (2006): 9,326
• Median family income (2001): $52,372
• Industry: Primarily forestry-related and mill jobs. In 2001, 25 per cent of the experienced labour force worked in the manufacturing and construction industry.

Source: Most recent information from Statistics Canada

Businesses are thriving, new jobs are springing up and the economy has never been better in Quesnel, in the Cariboo Region of the B.C. Interior. Nevertheless, an impending crisis hangs heavily over the town.

British Columbia is experiencing the largest outbreak in North American history of the mountain pine beetle, which not only kills pine trees — giving loggers only a few years at most to harvest them before they rot — but also carries along a fungus that stains the wood blue or grey.

On maps outlining the scope of the beetle-killed trees, a bright red patch surrounds Quesnel. The red shows that the city is surrounded by the biggest concentrations of the beetle (while at the same time reflecting the hue of the dying forests).

At this point, experts say there's no stopping the beetle's toll in central B.C. By 2013, the provincial Ministry of Forests predicts the mountain pine beetle will destroy 80 per cent of the marketable pine in the central and southern Interior forests. Half of the pine will likely be gone by the summer of 2007.

It spells potential disaster for Quesnel, which bills itself as the "Woodsmart City" because it has about 100 companies directly related to the wood products industry — and hundreds more within a 200-kilometre radius.

Quesnel's main street, circa 1865. (Photo courtesy Quesnel & District Museum and Archives)

Loggers are now racing to get to as many trees as they can before the beetles, while mills are running full tilt trying to process the wood. The city is enjoying the resulting short-term economic bonanza, while at the same time frantically strategizing to make sure Quesnel isn't wiped out in a few years — along with the surrounding forest.

'Bumper year' as province raises quotas

Business is currently booming, because the province's chief forester has loosened up the quotas in an attempt to salvage as much timber as possible before the beetles make it unusable. The province is allowing mills in the Cariboo and neighbouring Chilcotin regions to cut more trees than would usually be permitted under the AAC (annual allowable cut).

Before the beetles took shelter in Quesnel pines, the region had an AAC of 2.2 million cubic metres of wood. Loggers are now allowed to harvest more than five million cubic metres of wood a year. The season was also extended to give the loggers more time to work.

This has left Quesnel's sawmill yards brimming with wood, created extra shifts in the mills and made machine upgrades necessary.

Clan Logging, which harvests and delivers wood for Canfor mills in Quesnel, says the past logging season has been a busy one.

The company's bush manager, Lee Rushton, said Clan Logging harvested more than 350,000 cubic metres of wood in 2006. Before the beetle, the company typically brought in 250,000 cubic metres a year.

"It's just a bumper year with the lumber prices," Rushton said.

Rushton came to the region a few years ago and said he immediately noticed the beetle's impact. "I was amazed at the extent of the dead wood."

Changes have been noticeable in the forest even over the past year, he said — especially because the summer of 2006 had exactly the kind of hot, dry weather that the beetle thrives in.

Province, Ottawa give millions in aid

As the mountain pine beetle continues to burrow through one of B.C.'s most important natural resources, the provincial government has set up several organizations to study the problem.

In 2001, the Ministry of Forests and Range produced the Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan, outlining actions that the community and province could take to prepare for the beetle's effects. The province also gave money for research and planning to the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Committee and the Northern Development Initiative Fund, both Quesnel-area groups.

Rich Coleman, the minister for forests and range, said that in addition to funding and increased cutting quotas, another government priority has been a major tree planting initiative.

"We've accelerated the replanting to match the cut so there isn't a shortfall," Coleman said.

The industry is also being encouraged to process the red and dying trees and leave healthy green trees behind.

The federal government has also provided aid. In 2002, Ottawa chipped in $40 million for the Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative. Part of the money goes to research, while the remainder is earmarked to help private, non-industrial forest owners and to fund beetle-wood harvesting and reforestation.

Most recently, in 2005, the federal government gave British Columbia $100 million toward beetle control, fire safety and economic diversification in affected communities.

'Lots of wringing of hands but not a lot of action'

Despite the helping hand, some people in Quesnel believe the federal and provincial governments need to become more active with individual regions instead of throwing money at the province as a whole.

High lead logging in the forests around Quesnel in the 1920s. (Photo courtesy Quesnel & District Museum and Archives)

Annie Gallant has been a reporter at the Cariboo Observer, a newspaper serving the region, for 11 years. For much of that time, Gallant has been on the "beetle beat" — a story about the mountain pine beetle can be found in almost every edition of the paper.

Gallant said when the beetle problem started gaining attention in 1996 and 1997, the federal and provincial governments were unresponsive.

"When people started recognizing the overwhelming impact, there was lots of wringing of hands but not a lot of action," Gallant said.

"There was talk of [increasing] the AAC and that ate up four good years of planning. That's where we are now."

When it comes to aid, Gallant believes that both levels of government need to get more personal with affected communities.

She said she thinks there is potential for residents to start new businesses and build on the natural resources in the area.

The problem is that people don't have the resources to cover the startup costs — and that's where Gallant believes the government aid should be going.

"I would like to see them put a government person in the community to work directly with everyone.… We need the government to come here [and] tell us: 'You matter, you're going to be here in twenty years.'"

[an error occurred while processing this directive]