Nova Scotia prepares for spruce budworm outbreak

With a spruce budworm infestation underway in neighbouring provinces, Nova Scotia will evaluate aerial spray options next week as it prepares for the pests arrival.

"We think we've got two to five years," says the province's Natural Resources Minister Lloyd Hines.

The Department of Natural Resources has been planning for an outbreak since 2014.The prospect got closer last month when a flight ofspruce budworm moths from Quebec landed in northern New Brunswick.

The flight was so large it showed up on weather radar.

To spray or not to spray

The last major outbreak in Nova Scotia during the 1970s devastated softwood stands in Cape Breton.

The question of spraying was a central issue then and is very much an option this time.

Hines said a decision to spray has not been made but the province is looking at two biological pesticides; the bacterium BTK and a hormone called Mimic.It's being tried as an early intervention tactic in New Brunswick on outbreak epicentres.

• 50 Nova Scotians help track spruce budworm

"We have the benefit of seeing those tests, there and in other jurisdictions," said Hines."We have gathered some information which I expect to see next week comparing the two approaches and how effective they are and the concentration, and the most effective treatment across the budworm universe as it were."

Right now BTK is the prime candidate, Hinessaid,since it has been widely used, doesn't affect humans and is "seen as fairly benign from a pesticide perspective."

To cut or not to cut

Another important decision will be whether to accelerate harvesting in the balsam fir and spruce stands that are susceptible to the budworm.

Cutting is easier to carry out on Crown lands, where the government has a say than on private woodlots.

The potential impact of flooding the market with product will have to be factored in, Hines said.

Other impacts considered

The DNR framework now includes planning for potential impacts on tourism, wildlife, watersheds andeven municipal water supply.

"The issue of watersheds from the prospect of losing the vegetation around these watersheds, increasing run-off, getting more siltation. All those kinds of considerations have to be looked at and they will all feed into the process."

Decisions pending

Hines said the province is prepared to take "serious measures" but his department did notrelease a copy of its spruce budworm response framework to CBC News.He said decisions on spraying and harvesting have not been made and he promised consultations first.

"We need to talk with our various stakeholders to see what it is going to look like and what our response might be and that will be dictated by just how intense and when we get hit," he said.