“Bug Wood”: Climate Change, Mountain Pine Beetles and Risk in the Southeastern BRITISH COLUMBIA Logging Industry

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the culture in the logging industry in the East Kootenay/Columbia region in British Columbia, Canada, is changing as warm winters resulting from climate change drive expansion of a native tree-killing pest, the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae).

Methodology/approach

The paper is derived from historical records and 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted from July 2010 to May 2011.

Findings

This analysis found that the insect outbreaks are generating a heightened sense of economic and physical vulnerability in the logging industry, undermining previous assumptions of sufficiency and confidence.

Research limitations/implications

This paper presents results from a study of a specific region, and caution should be used when comparing these results with similar phenomena in other contexts.

Social implications

The forest industry is an important employer throughout the British Columbia interior; the cultural changes documented here indicate that climate change, manifested in insect outbreaks, is generating cultural dislocation that can have negative consequences beyond the immediate economic impacts.

Originality/value

This paper provides a detailed analysis of how an unanticipated consequence of climate change is driving adjustments in a subculture in a technologically advanced society.

Citation

Patterson, P.B. (2015), "“Bug Wood”: Climate Change, Mountain Pine Beetles and Risk in the Southeastern BRITISH COLUMBIA Logging Industry", Climate Change, Culture, and Economics: Anthropological Investigations (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 35), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 47-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0190-128120150000035003