Natural Resources committee  The pine beetle and the spruce budworm are natural. They're not exotic. They have co-evolved with the forests here and that they are off-cycle or hyperabundant doesn't make them unnatural to the system. I think that's what Darlene tried to say. On the other hand, you have long-h

Natural Resources committee  There has been very important work, through the control of ballast water, that has dramatically reduced the rate of newcomers or undesirable guests in the Great Lakes. It has been quite successful. Unfortunately, it came late, after the invasion of a large number of species there

Natural Resources committee  Maintain and enhance surveillance capacity. The recipe would be this: We will be successful when we have very early detection, when we have people actively scouting, always being nervous and looking for the spread or emergence of invasive species.

Natural Resources committee  It's established logging operations. We just put some bounds on the type of equipment that is used and where they can go, so that they don't irreversibly damage some of the land. It's professional companies doing that.

Natural Resources committee  I guess everybody wishes that they were able to find a silver bullet. There is a technological issue here, which is that we don't know of an effective means of eradicating it. There's another major contributing factor. One limiting factor was removed with global warming. Another

Natural Resources committee  Yes, we're using the same standards, basically, that are recommended by the national recovery strategy for the species. It tries to avoid the attack by using pheromone traps that capture the vectors before they hit the tree. We have little nursery-grown seedlings that are, as far

Natural Resources committee  Yes. We're recreating patches of habitat that are pretty bare and limiting the direct contact of potentially infected trees. We're replanting in those islands, hopefully with success. This is a new type of treatment.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  And bird-watching....

Natural Resources committee  If I may just add, on the resources, in each of the management units we have on the mountain blocks—we have five in total—there is a fire crew and fire specialists in each one of them, who are permanent, indeterminate, year-round. There are 40 dedicated fire specialists and fire

Natural Resources committee  The plan is implemented on a yearly basis. You just have to be careful that you don't do prescribed burns just because they're planned one year. You need to meet certain conditions so that they don't escape and so that you can get the result you want for it. It's difficult to t

Natural Resources committee  It goes both ways. When you have a year of very light rain or no rain, you don't do prescribed burns. As for the tracking of whether it works, it's a bit difficult in that context. It will require time. Then there's the question of whether you judge the result based on slowing

Natural Resources committee  If I may respond, fundamentally, we are land managers. We are not the fine experts on, say, pest control or this or that. We are largely borrowing the techniques that are best practices developed by others. In this case, Canadian Forest Service is obviously a world leader in thos

Natural Resources committee  No. It's highly consistent. Another example of mechanized removal is for other diseases. We typically don't spray. We typically avoid using neonicotinoids. Well, we are not using them. We are banning the use of neonicotinoids in national parks, which in some cases are used for s

Natural Resources committee  There isn't one that is being applied. It's really mechanical or burning....