Mountain Pine Beetle

The numbers involved with the mountain pine beetle problem are staggering.

Close to 10 000 000 hectares of land are currently effected by MPD - this is an area not much smaller than the three maritime provinces combined.

BC has an inventory of about 1 200 000 000 cubic metres of pine. Based on the details in a provincial report, about 500 000 000 cubic metres of wood is not likely to be harvested.

That wood has a value of $30 000 000 000 fob at the mill gate. The lost economic value of the wood that is not processed is another $60 000 000 000. The loss to the Canadian economy of this wood not being harvested is about $100 billion - the tax revenue loss alone is $25 billion.

The lost timber is equal to about 9 years of the BC forest industry.

This loss will be borne by one single region in the country, the interior of BC north of the Okanagan and south of the Peace. This region has a total population of about 400 000 people. the loss of GDP to the region is $250 000 per person, though that is just the value of the timber not harvested. The impact of the reduction of the Annual Allowable Cut by about 30 000 000 cubic metres a year in this region is a GDP loss $6 000 000 000 annually - or $15 000 per person per year.