A company was recently fined as the province is reminding people to be careful about where they get wood from.
Landrider Trux Limited, a firewood, logging, and sawmilling operation based out of Maple Creek, was fined just over $9,700 earlier this year for illegally importing pine logs from Alberta.
Those logs were from an area with Mountain Pine Beetle presence, which can cause damage to trees and as such is prohibited by the province.
Dr. Rory McIntosh, insect and disease expert with the Ministry of Environment's Forest Service Branch, talks about the province's apprehension about taking in wood that could potentially be damaging to the province's ecosystem.
"We were worried about spreads coming in through the northern boreal forest from BC into Alberta and then into Saskatchewan. So we've put out a restriction order to prevent the movement of pine forest products with the bark attached. That originated from BC, Alberta, or the United States, and that was the piece of the restriction order that was violated. There was an import of pine with bark attached."
McIntosh says that it's important to keep the wood out because the pine mountain beetle has proven to be a problematic species in other areas.
"Once it's come into the province, there's a very good chance that it could adapt and continue to become a long-term problem, so I don't know if you've seen the reports from Western Canada about the landscape level mortality of pine trees. There was a massive number of trees killed throughout British Columbia over the year period of 2000 to about 2010, roughly. Then the beetle spreads in two mass disposal events in 2006 and 2009, breached the Rockies, and spreads halfway across Alberta."
"So we were concerned that those natural or those spread of those beetles from North Central Alberta would trickle through the pine forests in the north and come get into Saskatchewan, so we put in a restriction order cause one of the biggest ways that insects travel long distances is under the bark in logs."
There are other threats that pose a risk to Saskatchewan through the transportation of wood all around Saskatchewan.
"There's threats from the west, which is the Mountain Pine Beetle, and from the east and from the south, we do have some concerns about the movement of ash and specifically the Emerald Ash Borer. We have a restriction order out for that that restricts the movement of ash wood originating from eastern Canada, basically the United States and from Manitoba into the province, so we don't want any movement of ash wood into the province that might be carrying with it the Emerald Ash Borer."
"It's interesting that after the Dutch Elm disease spread so rapidly through the southeast of Saskatchewan, a lot of the Elms were being replaced by ash, so there are not many species of trees that grow well in the prairies, and ash and Elm are two of the probably the most abundant species that are found in most of our communities."
In order for people to know the guidelines for moving wood in and around the province McIntosh says people should phone into the forestry service's tips line.
"The tip line is good too if people identify something that's being moved in and report that to us and we can find out if it's actually a violation or not. We would be unlikely to provide authorization to import ash wood, let's say from eastern Canada. There have been instances where we have allowed for the imports of mountain pine beetle for pine without bark though. So the idea is that they can bring it in, but it has to be without the bark."
The Turn in Poachers and Polluters line can be contacted at 1-800-667-7561.