The crisis in the province’s forestry industry can be blamed on several factors and according to a local expert, one of the reasons won’t come as a surprise to many of us.

TRU’s Faculty of Natural Resources Associate Professor, Dr. Tom Pypker, was on NL Newsday and said climate change is adding to the problem. “I think some of the impacts we have on the timber supply is attributable to climate change.”

“Of course there’s a whole suite of aspects that are impacting that but the increasing temperatures, for the most part, are not going to be helpful in terms of our timber supply.”

Dr Pypker also thinks climate change could hurt BC forests from replenishing themselves. “In terms of timber supply part of that, it terms of regeneration we start to have challenges with warming temperatures and then whether a species was appropriate in a certain location we then have to ask ten, twenty, thirty years from now, will that species still thrive in this location under a different climate that has fairly rapidly changed.”

We aren’t the only ones enjoying warmer winters either, as the doctor points out, a certain insect likes the warmth too. “In terms of the Mountain Pine Beetle, a portion of the outbreak has been attributed to increasing temperatures however you don’t have these cold winters, it doesn’t suppress the beetle.”

“In part, the outbreak would be the result of increasing temperatures combined with perhaps other aspects of increase.”

Dr Pypker will be speaking tonight at Heritage House at Riverside Park as part of a forum put on the Kamloops Naturist Club from 7:00 – 8:30