At the 2012 Mountain Pine Beetle Workshop, hosted by the Foothills Research Institute, a group from the University of Alberta presented early findings from some ongoing research being done related to hydrology and the mountain pine beetle.
Dr. Uldis Silins, Dr. Ellen MacDonald, Pablo Pina and Anne McIntosh discussed different aspects of the project, which is designed to simulate a mountain pine beetle attack in order to measure the effects on the hydrology and the forest understory. An attack was simulated with herbicide applied to individual trees. Monitoring has been done for two complete growing seasons, and will continue.
Findings to date show the change in how much moisture reaches the forest floor. The understory has not shown significant change in the year following the attack. Regeneration attempts are not promising to date, although it is thought that regeneration may improve once trees fall so more light reaches the forest floor.
