Latest news with #Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
This invasive fly could help Kamloops, B.C., fight the invasive Japanese beetle
It may look like your average housefly, but this invasive, parasitic fly species could help stop the spread of invasive Japanese beetles, which were recently found near downtown Kamloops, B.C. It's called the winsome fly. Like the beetle, it also hails from Japan, and its sole purpose in life is to lay its eggs on those beetles, according to a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Paul Abram. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae get into the beetle, where they develop. They cause the beetle to bury itself in the soil and die, Abram said. Those flies stay in the soil over winter, and in the spring come back and start looking for new beetles to kill. Late last year, the Japanese beetles were detected in Kamloops, the first time the pests were detected in B.C. outside the Lower Mainland. The Japanese beetles were spotted just outside the Interior city's downtown core this year. The beetles feed on grass and plants, and have the potential to cause significant damage. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recognizes the insect's spread as a threat to commercial crops and native plants, and the Invasive Species Council of B.C. says it "poses a severe threat to ecosystems and industries." Abram said Japanese beetles invaded northeastern North America in the early 1900s, prompting U.S. officials to go to Japan to collect species that might hunt the insects. "This winsome fly was one of the species," Abram told CBC's Daybreak Kamloops. "Over the next 100 years, it became naturalized, and it turned out to be very specific to the Japanese beetle." He said researchers are still collecting data, but they've seen the fly kill up to 75 per cent of invasive Japanese beetles in some areas of Quebec. While that's promising news, it's unlikely the flies would be able to eradicate the beetles in B.C. "With any of these invasive pest species, unfortunately, there's seldom or never one sort of single silver bullet solution," Abram said. But it would certainly help to get to that point, he added. "The really nice thing about biological control by the winsome fly is … the more that they're doing their job every year, the less you have to do other things." Climate However, there is a question as to whether Kamloops' hot, arid climate would be the right place for a fly that's native to the humid, maritime environment of Japan. Though the flies aren't being introduced to Kamloops just yet, they were established in the Lower Mainland in 2023, Abram said, where the climate is much more similar to Japan's. However, he said, the fly does seem to like snow cover, which Kamloops certainly does get. Safety concerns But what happens to the flies once the beetles are gone? Most of the research being done around these insects is related to safety, Abram said. The flies need the beetles to procreate, so once the beetles die off, so will the flies. "There's been some really negative consequences from biological control introduction [of other species]," Abram said. "But those were basically back in the day where there was no safety testing done whatsoever." He points to the cane toad, native to South and Central America, which is considered one of the worst invasive species in the world. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, they were introduced to the state in the 1930s to control agricultural pests, but the population soon grew out of control. "Over the last 50 years, biological controls have become a very careful, heavily regulated practice that's informed by lots of careful science," Abram said. "In my lab in Agassiz, that's one of our main focuses is doing that kind of careful safety testing that it takes to make decisions about whether to introduce beneficial species to new areas." He said there are no big safety concerns around the introduction of winsome flies. The CFIA is asking Kamloopsians to report Japanese beetles if they find them, and Jason Crandall with the agency said people should trap and freeze the beetles so inspectors can map their spread.
CBC
04-08-2025
- Science
- CBC
Can charred wood help Nova Scotia farmers — and the climate?
In a rolling field in the Annapolis Valley, the soil in one row of grapevines is littered with charred fragments of wood. Those unassuming bits of charred material don't look like much, but the charcoal-like substance is a tool that scientists and farmers hope will turn waste into a tool to improve the health of the soil and store carbon long term. "Instead of losing everything in the atmosphere, we can stick … that carbon in the soil," said Vicky Lévesque, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Kentville. Lévesque's work is just one of the projects underway as scientists and companies in Nova Scotia explore how a material called biochar can be used and produced in the province. She says it's an opportunity to support growers while fighting climate change. Biochar can improve water and nutrient retention in soil Lévesque is testing biochar on grapevines at 11 sites in the Valley to see how it affects carbon sequestration, soil biodiversity, plant growth and nutrient leaching. The experiment will run for four years. "Talking with the grape industry, [they] see some issues in their vineyards, such as soil compaction, nitrogen loss and also water retention, and so we … brought that idea to test biochar in their vineyards." Biochar is made by heating organic materials — usually wood, but also crop waste, manure and even sewage — to temperatures as high as 1,000 C. That process, known as pyrolysis, happens without oxygen, meaning materials don't burn, but transform to a gas and a material that's almost entirely solid carbon. That material is thought to benefit soil in a number of ways. Biochar is packed with tiny pores. Those pores provide habitat for beneficial microorganisms; a tablespoon of biochar can have as much surface area as a football field. Biochar also retains water — as much as 27 grams per gram of biochar, allowing it to hold and release water over time — and aerates soils, helping roots penetrate. Atlantic Canada's freeze-thaw cycle causes soils to lose nitrogen from fertilizers to the atmosphere, costing farmers money and producing greenhouse gas emissions. Experiments suggest that biochar is able to retain that nitrogen, reducing emissions and fertilizer use. Biochar is almost 90 per cent carbon, as roasting without oxygen prevents the carbon in the wood from being released into the atmosphere. Soils in Atlantic Canada now lose half a tonne of carbon a year, mainly through tillage. Biochar could help reverse that. Dalhousie assistant professor Sonil Nanda, who is researching the production and use of biochar in applications ranging from agriculture to medicine, said biochar can help Canada make progress on climate change goals, especially when using material that would otherwise go to waste. "Canada can be a leader in tapping into these underutilized residues that come from the agricultural sector, forestry sector, municipal solid waste, forest fire wood," he said. "Biochar is one of those integral components … that will help us move towards net zero." Lévesque said one current barrier to adoption is the cost — the experiment is using 10 tonnes of biochar per hectare, which adds up to about $10,000. Another is the availability of biochar, as there are currently no large-scale producers in Atlantic Canada. A Halifax-based company is working to address that. Sawmills in the province currently have no destination for their residual wood, the remaining material left after usable lumber is cut, due to the closure of Northern Pulp. If that material is left to rot or is burned in an open fire, "that is at risk of going back into the form of CO2 after the tree worked for 50 or 100 years to make it into carbon," said Don LeBlanc, president of RDA Atlantic Inc. He said the buildup of giant piles of wood chips and shavings at sawmills in Atlantic Canada "is not a great environmental circumstance." Instead, RDA is proposing to turn that material into biochar. RDA has been working with a reactor design developed and patented in Poland; that reactor, which can weigh up to 40 tonnes, produces biochar in large amounts. RDA is trying to bring the technology to North America, and LeBlanc said they're currently in discussions with a sawmill in Nova Scotia to install a reactor to produce biochar. In the meantime, RDA is selling biochar that's produced in Poland locally, as a way of generating awareness among the public in this province. "As the market builds for the product, then we'll be in a better position to justify the construction of the first production facility in Atlantic Canada," said LeBlanc. Biochar is also emerging as a solution to dead wood and other vegetation being produced by climate change. Joe Lewis, co-founder of the company BioBurn Pros, didn't intend to start producing biochar. His company started in 2023 to help individuals and communities get rid of piles of vegetation created by natural disasters. BioBurn Pros offers a way to deal with the waste wood produced by hurricanes and wildfires, using portable burners that can be towed or trucked to a site, and quickly reduce the wood to ash and biochar. "It wasn't until we found this business model that made sense and we started pursuing it that we started to learn, oh, one of our byproducts is actually, you know, a valuable resource itself," Lewis said. Lewis said the company is seeing growing interest in biochar, and is investigating a burner design that is specifically aimed at producing more biochar than their existing model. In the future, Lewis envisions producing biochar as part of disaster preparedness, when communities are taking steps like removing vegetation to prevent wildfires. "These communities then need to deal with all the residual from that project, [and] we can give back to the community all the residual char so they can use it at home." One Nova Scotian is already using biochar at home. Rick Ketcheson grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, but spent his career as an engineer. When he retired, he became interested in soil health and sustainable agriculture. For the past nine years, he's been producing biochar in a kiln at his property in Annapolis Royal, using waste wood from a sawmill nearby, and putting the material in his garden. The process is labour-intensive, said Ketcheson, but the benefits are clear. "I know that if I maintain a good microbiome and include biochar in the soil that I'm going to have healthy plants, and it works. I have some tremendous results." When it comes to encouraging wider adoption of biochar — which the UN has said can increase soil carbon sequestration and fertility — in Nova Scotia, Ketcheson thinks a range of options can help make it a viable tool for Nova Scotians. In the meantime, he's encouraged by the increasing interest. "We need systems that work for small scale that people can do on their own farms or in the community … as well as mid-level and industrial-level production. So I think again it's about diversity."
