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Home > Meet
the Beetle
 The mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, is a small insect,
less than a centimetre long, which lives most of its life under the bark
of pine trees, including lodgepole, ponderosa and western white pine.
Normally these insects play an important role in the life of a forest.
They attack old or weakened trees, speeding the development of a younger
forest. However, unusual hot, dry summers and mild winters in central
British Columbia during the last few years, along with forests filled
with mature lodgepole pine, have lead to an epidemic. To date, beetles
have destroyed millions of lodgepole pine in BC – the province’s
most commercially harvested tree.
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