Douglas fir trees missing bark at Red Plateau in Kamloops.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Taylor Borth
April 21, 2023 - 7:00 AM
A Kamloops resident snapped a photo of three Douglas fir trees mostly stripped of bark and posted it on social media, which prompted a long list of suggestions as to what caused the strange phenomenon.
Taylor Borth found the trees while exploring the forest at Red Plateau last week, a hiking area just outside the city.
“A lot of people are arguing on what caused the bark to fall off, I just thought it looked cool, it’s something I’ve never seen before,” she said.
Interested commenters suggested the peeling was a result of bark or pine beetles, woodpeckers, or woodpeckers eating the beetles under the bark.
Some other suggestions were porcupines and Sasquatch.
“My dad believes it’s from woodpeckers trying to get at the bark beetle,” Borth said. “He’s a government worker for forest services.”
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John Karakasoulis, program advisor for natural resources and science at Thompson Rivers University, took a look at the photo and shared it with colleagues.
“It seems that it’s woodpeckers that are doing the de-barking,” he said in an email to iNFOnews.ca. “Our wildlife ecologist Dr. Karl Larsen has seen the same thing in Kenna Cartwright park.”
Some people reported seeing the same damage to trees in the Kootenays, Knouff Lake and other areas around Kamloops.
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