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Forestry and insects

Digging Up Dirt on the Spruce Budworm

The spruce budworm is an insect that eats the needles of fir and spruce, weakening the trees an putting them at risk for disease or even death. As if that wasn't enough, researchers are now looking at the potential impact that spruce budworm outbreaks could have on climate change. On today's episode: killer insects, scientific collaboration and elaborate cheese plates…

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A look at butternut defence mechanisms!

Recent visitors to the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium in Montreal have been amazed by twenty photographs resulting from Canadian scientific research. One brightly coloured image in particular is attracting attention — a microscopic image taken by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) scientists showing a white walnut or butternut tree defending itself against an exotic pathogenic fungus.

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Saving Our Ash Trees (Natural Elements)

For the past two decades, ash trees have been under attack by a tiny, yet formidable foe – the emerald ash borer. This invasive pest has already killed tens of millions of ash trees and shows no signs of letting up. On this episode, we are speaking with an expert that is conserving ash seeds for future restoration activities.

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Slowing Down the Spruce Budworm (Ask NRCan)

The spruce budworm is a notorious forest pest that has been causing havoc in recent years in Eastern Canada. It feeds on new foliage from spruce and fir trees, often killing them in the process. Rob Johns from the Canadian Forest Service joins us to talk about the measures taken to slow down the spruce budworm outbreak.

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A glimpse into the future of the boreal forest: less frequent but more aggressive fires

The boreal forest of North America developed after the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. We might expect that climate change and human occupation of the territory would put the boreal forest at greater risk of fire. But a recent scientific study involving Martin Girardin, a research scientist from the Laurentian Forestry Centre at the Canadian Forest Service, has found the opposite.

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