The City of Williams Lake will be submitting a resolution to NCLGA calling for the immediate removal of beetle infested trees regardless of their location whether they be in parks or protected areas in order to prevent an epidemic.
Mayor Walt Cobb says some 20 years later the area continues to be devastated from the pine beetle.
“Originally the pine beetle started in Tweedsmuir Park is where we saw it first happening. The government of the day decided that we were not going to allow logging in parks. Consequently they let it go; they didn’t cut any of the trees down or attack the beetle killed.”
Cobb says the health of a forest is far more important than a small protected area.
He says they do not want the same thing to happen from the spruce beetle or Douglas fir beetle.
“With through our CCBAC committee and actually I was on a conference call yesterday with NDIT and the issue came up about with fiber supply, and pine beetle and fir beetle. It’s almost an epidemic status now, so I talked with them and I told them I would draft up a resolution.”
The NCLGA convention takes place this May in Terrace.
*Note: The resolution was supported in principle at a Committee of Whole Council on Tuesday, March 14. Councillor Ivan Bonnell did not support the resolution at Regular Council on March 21.