Trees impacted by Mountain Pine Beetles in the Hinton, AB area. (Supplied by Government of Alberta)

By David Opinko

Crowsnest Pass left “chasing their tails” for provincial funding to fight mountain pine beetles

Jan 8, 2020 | 12:01 PM

CROWSNEST PASS, AB – The mayor of the Crowsnest Pass says it’s been a frustrating few months trying to secure a grant to deal with an infestation of mountain pine beetles (MPB) in the area.

Last fall, the Alberta Agriculture and Forestry Ministry completed their assessment of the local forests, finding approximately 100 trees north of West Coleman that were infected.

70 of these were on Crown land and 30 were on properties that are privately-owned.

“The frustrating part is, when we talked to the province about it, they said, ‘Oh, there’s funding available. Go ahead and apply for the grant funding,'” Blair Painter told LNN.

“We jumped through all the hoops and we took hours and hours and hours of our administrative time to prepare all of these grant applications, and they turn around and say there’s no, there’s no grant money for this.”

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The municipal government was notified on December 20th, 2019, that, at least for now, the province will only be dedicating funding to tackle MPB on Crown lands.

Painter says they were planning on using the grant to hire a contractor to cut down and burn the impacted trees as this is the only reliable way to keep the insects from spreading.

Since the MPB were on Crown land first and later came to the private areas, the mayor believes they could easily return to the trees on Crown property. Therefore, he says it makes sense for the province to tackle both.

The municipality had requested $7,820 in funding, so regardless of where the money comes from, the Crowsnest Pass council will pursue programs to tackle the MPB.

“We’re going to have to find the money someplace because we definitely want to get a handle on this, and you’re right, it’s not a lot of money, but it’s pretty much just a matter of principal. We believe the province should be looking after these things.”

Painter says they will be speaking to the Minister of Red Tape Reduction, Grant Hunter, as soon as possible about this matter.