Biggest Park In Halifax Under Quarantine...06/01/00

HALIFAX - The largest park in Halifax is under quarantine. The federal government made the move after determining a species of foreign beetle has already killed 8,000 trees and will likely destroy up to 40,000 more.

The quarantine is an attempt to keep the pest from moving outside the park and endangering the lumber and pulp industries.

A million and half visitors walk the woods and ocean beaches of Point Pleasant Park every year. But an uninvited guest has been killing thousands of red spruce trees.

Biology professor Bill Freedman says the European longhorn beetle likely came over in cargo on a container ship.

Ten-year-old beetles have been found in the city, but Freedman says it was only identified two weeks ago. "Someone goofed up," he said. "One of our specialists whose responsibility it is to identify these sorts of pests, didn't."

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Under the quarantine order people will still be able to come to the park, but they can't take any plant material out.

Within days a task force will decide whether to cut down and burn all the red spruce - that's 70 per cent of the trees in this park.

Greg Cunningham is with the federal agency in charge. He says they're waiting for scientists to tell them whether to begin cutting now.

"We could be stirring up a real hornet's nest. You might get more beetles emerging than if we waited until the fall."

The red spruce is the most used tree in Nova Scotia's forest industry. The fear is if the beetle travels, this could be not only an environmental disaster, but an economic one as well.
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