Nadina Beetle Treatments

Complaint Investigation 030500
Summary Report
FPB/IRC/99S
November 2004

In March 2003, the Board received a complaint about the Ministry of Forests (MOF) using an arsenic based pesticide known as MSMA to control bark beetles. The complainant made the following assertions: the arsenic compounds spread to other species of animals and humans, causing damage to the environment; that MSMA was being applied in close proximity to private property, contrary to its intended use as stated in public advertisements; that MOF did not adequately track where the trees had been treated; and that milling treated trees and burning the waste caused mill workers and the general public to come into contact with arsenical compounds.

The Board investigated whether or not using MSMA to control bark beetles is considered environmental damage under forest practices legislation, if MSMA treatments occurred in areas other than advertised, if the treated trees were tracked, if MSMA treatments were close to human habitation and whether or not treated trees where harvested and milled.

While the Board is responsible for investigating complaints regarding forest practices legislation, other legislation governs the use of MSMA. These statutes are better suited to regulate the use of pesticides. The Board found that MSMA use by government complied with the Forest Practices Code prohibition against damage to the environment. The board also found that the Ministry of Forests’ use of misleading terminology in their advertisement led the public to believe that MSMA would not be used near private property or areas accessible by the public. However, the investigation determined that MSMA had been used near the complainant’s home. Lastly, the Board determined that workers and others were subject to an increased risk of exposure to MSMA because the treated trees were harvested and milled within a year of treatment.

The Board made the following recommendations:

1. The Ministry of Forests:

• provide provincial policy for tracking MSMA-treated trees to ensure that treated trees are not harvested and milled;
• provide provincial policy, with regard to MSMA use, that the terms ‘isolated’ or ‘remote’ mean out-of-the-way or secluded, with no chance of harvest and not near areas that are or could be frequented by people;
• provide direction to those advertising for comments from the public to use clear normal wording and not use technical or ambiguous definitions.

2. That the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection re-assess the risk that MSMA will do damage to humans as well as to the environment in the light of emerging new scientific information, and in consideration of the board’s findings that MSMA was used near human habitation and MSMA-treated trees were subsequently logged and milled within a year.

Under section 132(a) of the Forest and Range Practices Act the Board requests that the Ministry of Forests and Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection report steps taken to answer these recommendations by March 2005.