A national forum that is the largest and most significant national gathering of forest pest management experts each year takes place this week in Ottawa and is coordinated by staff at Sault Ste. Marie’s Natural Resources Canada, Great Lakes Forestry Centre (GLFC) and will include presentations from two of that facility’s scientists.
The 57th annual Forest Pest Management Forum is at the Shaw Centre (Ottawa Convention Centre) from December 2 – 4, 2014 attracting scientists, managers and practitioners from across Canada and the United States.
The event coordination is by GLFC’s Stan Phippen, Forest Technology Transfer and Anthony Hopkin, Director, Forest Pest Management.
Eleven researchers with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) will present their work and findings, including two from GLFC.
Dave Kreutzweiser, Research Scientist, presents on, “When regulatory process and operational requirements conflict: how can we move this forward?”
Jeremy Allison, Research Scientist, speaks on, “The impact of trap design and the distance among traps on the capture of Cerambycidae.”
Allison’s presentation will show that pheromones and other semiochemicals are effective tools to enhance detection of longhorn beetle species (including the brown spruce longhorn beetle) in survey traps. Early detection is critical to successfully eradicate, contain, or manage these pests.
Kreutzweiser’s discussion will point out that Canada has a rigorous forest pesticide regulatory system and decisions must follow a standardized process to ensure consistency, thoroughness, and fairness. However, that process can take time and some emerging pest management challenges can be urgent, time-sensitive, and economically significant. His presentation will lead to discussion on what resolution might be achieved.
Participants also include representatives of the forestry industry, provincial governments, and academic researchers. Natural Resources Canada provides leading edge science-based knowledge required by forest managers and policy makers in the public and private forest sectors. It has the lead role for ensuring integration and promoting collaboration nationally.
To date, Government of Canada achievements have included:
– demonstrating the capacity to reduce localized spruce budworm populations, to protect high value trees, and to destroy some spruce budworm populations with non-toxic insecticides.
– demonstrating that in experimental settings, use of pheromones have not provided conclusive results.
– improving knowledge and understanding of how a spruce budworm outbreak gets under way and spreads, and why some small scale spruce budworm populations have difficulty becoming epidemic and reproducing.
These advances are supporting the health of Canadian forests and protecting jobs in the forest sector.
NRCAN PRESENTATION TOPICS:
1. National Forest Pest Strategy Update
2. Eastern Pest Management Issues
3. Urban Forestry Update
4. Alien Invasive and Wood Packaging Update
5. Pesticide – Regulations, Alternatives and Minor Use
6. Insect Semiochemistry
7. Forest Pests and Climate Change
8. Western Pest Management Issues
9. Forest Pathology
10. Spruce Budworm
Natural Resources Canada researchers study forest pests in order to minimize their damage to Canada’s forests. This includes studying various aspects of biology, population dynamics and management options.
Forest Pest Management Forum partners include federal (Canadian Forest Service, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Pest Management regulatory Agency and the Canadian Institute of Forestry) and provincial (provinces, two territories, industry) organizations and government.
The session agenda is set collaboratively through the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers, Forest Pest Working Group.
