The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry has been forced to cancel a Jack Pine Budworm aerial spray program in the the Kenora district because of COVID-19.
Regional Outreach Specialist Michelle Nowak says working with health officials they determined the project team wouldn’t be able to follow recommended physical distancing measures during operations.
“The plan was to spray 80-thousand hectares of forest where Jack Pine Budworm is present with a biological insecticide known as BTK to control it.”
She explains that the program is highly time-dependent, and that it’s not possible to delay the project to another time in 2020.
Nowak says Ministry staff will be able to determine if the program can be carried out next year after they get the go ahead to monitor the affected areas this summer.
“The planned spray area for 2020 was only a small percentage, less than eight per-cent, of the impacted forest. That’s less than 80-thousand hectares of the over one million hectare total area.”
The regional outreach specialist adds that the program is both expensive and strategic.
“The spray was planned for the most severely affected and vulnerable stands of timber to protect strategic wood supplies and to reduce the risk of future forest fires.”
She says forests in the Kenora, Dryden, Red Lake and Sioux Lookout areas are currently experiencing moderate to severe impacts due to Jack Pine Budworm outbreaks.
