Are mountain pine beetles common to Alberta?
Most of Alberta is outside of the beetle’s normal range of distributions, due primarily to climate. Alberta’s winter is sometimes too severe for the beetles to survive. There have been historical infestation outbreaks in southern Alberta when population levels were high in B.C. and Montana, in areas near Alberta’s borders. Outbreaks occurred in the 1940s, the late 1970s to the mid-1980s and again most recently beginning in 2000. An unusual weather event brought beetles to west-central Alberta for the first time in 2006. Strong winds carried beetles approximately 400 kilometres from central B.C. to the Grande Prairie region, infesting pine forests in the region.
