The spruce beetle, a forest pest that is native to spruce forests and attacks the inner bark of these trees, continues to be a growing concern in B.C. According to the province’s latest areal overview survey, the total infested area in B.C. has nearly doubled this year – from 283,083 hectares in 2016 to 501,873 hectares in 2017. Over 8100 hectares of forests have been damaged by spruce beetle in the Lakes timber supply area (TSA) – a significant increase from 2016, when 1200 hectares had been damaged, and from the 58 hectares damaged in 2014. While the situation has gotten worse in the Lakes TSA, the Morice TSA has remained fairly stable. Over 2900 hectares were affected in 2017 – similar to 2014. The situation is much more severe in the Prince George TSA, where 275,108 hectares were affected in 2017 – almost double than the 142,837 hectares affected in 2016.