THUNDER BAY — It's called the spruce budworm, but the insect that's invaded the Kamview Nordic Centre is feasting on balsam fir, its favourite food source.
The situation has prompted the board of directors to head off some undesirable consequences, including the risk of dead trees falling on ski trails, and a potential forest fire.
Board chair Ross Johnston said the 600-acre property is quite dense with balsam fir, and there's already evidence of feeding.
"This summer, with the assistance of the Canadian Forestry Service, we put up pheromone traps which capture the male moths. Over a three-week period, we ended up with about 1,500 moths, which according to CFS, is off the charts."
Johnston said the budworm has the potential to kill all the trees over the next three to five years, so some of the trees will be removed and replaced.
"We're having a logger come in, and we'll sell the material to the local mill, then next spring replant with species that are much less susceptible to the budworm. And quite diverse species as well, ranging from yellow birch, white birch, sugar maple, red maple, black spruce, jackpine, just a real mixture."
Initially, the harvesting will take place over a relatively small area of mature trees that are ready to come down, Johnston said.
Some of the balsams, in fact, have already fallen.
"The real risk from this is fire," he said, noting that Kamview is adjacent to the Mount Forest subdivision.
" And once you have dead standing balsam fir, it's not safe. The trees fall down on the ski trails. It's just unmanageable."
Another option could be spray the trees from the air with Bt, a bacterial insecticide, but Johnston said that's expensive, and the timing has to be perfect.
The area targeted for harvesting measures is about 50 acres.
He said he's walked through it with the logging contractor, and some trees will be left intact so it won't look as if it's been clear-cut.
