GLFC e-Bulletin

Great Lakes Forestry Centre officially opens the Insect Production and Quarantine Laboratories and Invasive Species Centre

Overview

On July 31st, 2012 the Minister of Natural Resources, The Honourable Joe Oliver along with Mr. Brian Hayes, Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie and Mr. David Orazietti, member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly for Sault Marie, officially opened the new Insect Production and Quarantine Laboratories (IPQL) and the Canada-Ontario Invasive Species Centre (ISC). The IPQL and ISC are located at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The state-of-the-art IPQL is the only one of its kind in Canada dedicated to rearing native and alien forest insects.

Staff of the new facility (IPQL and ISC) will work with their partners to further advance forest research on efforts to combat invasive species and to inform policy makers to protect Canada’s forest.

The facility, located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, at the Great Lakes Forestry Centre (GLFC) is a $16.3 million partnership (of which $11.4 was for construction of the building) between the federal and Ontario governments. It will support Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) research on alien invasive insects in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The facility also houses a new domestic insect production facility. This 1600 square meter facility has an area for producing domestic forest insects for forest research and a level 2 quarantine area for rearing and working with insects not native to Canada (often called alien invasive species).

The IPQL is managed by NRCan and focuses on production and quarantine of several species of insects in laboratories with special control facilities such as pressurized areas to contain the insects. The insect production facility at the GLFC was established in 1963 and is the only facility in North America to rear forest multiple insect pest species and the only one in the world to rear spruce budworm, a native North American species that is responsible for large areas of damage and defoliation in spruce forests. The insects that are reared in the facility are used in forest research at the GLFC, other CFS research centres, provincial/state agencies and numerous universities across Canada and the United States. The insects are also used for educational purposes at a number of institutions. The new quarantine facility replaces the previous GLFC quarantine facility, which was too small for the type of work being done. The new facility has a larger working area and provides a state-of-the-art environment to conduct research on many of the forest insect pests threatening Canada’s forests.

In 2011, the federal government (Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Fisheries and Oceans Canada) and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote greater cooperation and coordination of efforts to manage the threats created by invasive terrestrial and aquatic organisms to Canada’s ecosystems. As a result of the MOU the ISC, a non-profit agency that promotes greater sharing of information and more coordinated research efforts between federal and provincial agencies, was created in April of 2011. The ISC will play an important part in developing strong ties with other federal, provincial, state and municipal governments, First Nations, universities, and other non-profit agencies to address the increasing threats alien species pose to Canada’s ecosystems and its economy.

This new facility will allow NRCan and its partners to respond more quickly to threats to Canada’s forest ecosystem and develop effective control measures and policies to support those measures. To learn more about the new facility please visit the IPQL (insect rearing) and the Invasive Species Center.