Rainbow Park in Prince George is seeing 200 new trees planted to help with the devastation left behind by the Mountain Pine Beetle.
About 30 Rotarians from the club in PG spent the morning planting seedlings donated by the Industrial Forestry Service.
Horticulture Foreman Keith Stibrany says when the beetle outbreak happened years ago it left its mark.
.@CityofPG Horticulture Foreman Keith Stibrany says #RainbowPark “became very barren during mountain pine beetle outbreak;” adds it’s important to reclaim our forests as insect infestations happen rapidly | #CityOfPG pic.twitter.com/HgJrKSzEcr
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) June 6, 2018
“There was a lot of trees that came out of here. Rainbow Park was predominantly a pine forest and when pine beetle came through it was very bare in here. We came in about 10 years ago and planted some trees through here and we’re just doing a little bit more once and a while.”
It’s hard to contain the beetle once it starts spreading and the only solution is to try and bring back what the insect has taken away, added Stibrany.
“With insect infestations, there’s nothing much we can do. They multiply fast in short generations, so, staying ahead of them is pretty difficult. The best we can do is just try and mitigate the problems that they cause and build things back up again.”
Back in July, the International President of the Rotary Club challenged Rotarians around the world to plant a tree to demonstrate their commitment to the environment.