Mountain Pine Beetle Program (2007–2010)

Program description

On January 12, 2007, the Minister of Natural Resources announced actions that the federal government would take to fight the mountain pine beetle infestation and address the impacts on the forest industry and communities it supports. Through these actions, the Government of Canada worked closely with the Province of British Columbia and other agencies to deliver a comprehensive integrated strategy to combat the infestation on federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations lands.

Preceded by the Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative, which ran from 2002 to 2007, the federal Mountain Pine Beetle Program included forestry measures, delivered by Natural Resources Canada; a Community Economic Diversification Initiative and an Airport Improvements Initiative, led by Western Economic Diversification Canada; and transportation infrastructure projects, delivered by Transport Canada.

The forestry measures encompassed three broad objectives:

  • to control the spread of the mountain pine beetle infestation, particularly slowing the eastward progression
  • to assess the impacts and develop options for recovering , where reasonable, the use of beetle-kill timber and to complete natural resource surveys within the beetle zone
  • to mitigate post-beetle impacts on community health and safety and on forest resource sustainability .

The Mountain Pine Beetle Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010, has now ended and funding is no longer available.

As part of the Mountain Pine Beetle Program, Natural Resources Canada also provided funding to the collection and distribution of new geoscience information from the central region of British Columbia.