A cold snap gripping western Canada may be just brutal enough to put a dent in Alberta's destructive mountain pine beetle. Extreme cold stubbornly lingering over the province for more than week is keeping nightly lows around the –35 C mark.
While most Albertans despair the cold, those on the front lines of the fight against the mountain pine beetle are quietly rejoicing, said Janice Cooke, an associate professor in the University of Alberta's department of biological sciences.
Untold numbers of young beetles are freezing to death, Cooke said. “The colder we go, the more we kill," Cooke said in an interview Monday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM. "We've been very fortunate this year; the cold snap that we've had has been particularly vicious where the outbreak is of most concern and that's not only in Jasper National Park, but beyond the park gates towards Hinton."
