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Dear All, June 9, 2007
Today being warm and calm, I felled a fairly large (24" diameter; 34
paces= 85' tall) Large-toothed Aspen (_Populus tremuloides_), that had
a dead upper main branch and a _Fomes_ bracket at about eye-height; warm
for insect activity drawn by freshly cut wood and the expected touch of
sour sap and calm for more reliable aiming of a tree with perhaps
considerable rot at the base.
Using CFIA BSLB-BS logic as a template, it soon became apparent what
was killing this tree, that might otherwise have lived many more years.
At about 4 paces along the trunk I found a weevil and at about 18 paces,
as I marked lengths for later chunking, I found two more weevils.
At this point there should be ominous background music and the hairs
on the back of your neck should stick out and start quivering.
Notice the six salient points.
1) There were only 3 small weevils and this much larger tree was
dying. Can you imagine what kind of shape that tree would have been in
had there been 4 or 5 of these obviously very dangerous weevils ? Why it
might have died as a mere seedling.
2) These insects are diabolically clever; while this tree was being
cut, all three managed to crawl around to the side of the tree that was
going to be uppermost when it landed.
3) At a glance, there may be two or three weevil species involved,
so we may be dealing with a conspiracy; an axis of weevil.
4) When these dangerous weevils have wiped out the forests, and the
associated carbon fixation, then it will become hot, especially after
the oceans have boiled dry.
5) This tragic outcome may be averted if these weevils become lazy,
like the BSLB were in Point Pleasant Park during the period of at least
10 years that they just sat around and looked at trees.
6) Alternatively they may change their habits, just like the BSLB
did only in reverse; harmful to harmless instead of harmless to harmful.
Yours truly, Dave Webster, Kentville
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