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The mountain pine beetle outbreak has caused unprecedented damage to the Canadian forest industry. The current infestation has affected more than 18 million hectares of pine forests and is the largest such epidemic in recorded history. This project aims to better understand the biology of the mountain pine beetle in order to control future outbreaks and to better predict feedstock supplies that could be used for energy production. The project aims to model the spread and likelihood of a pine-beetle outbreak and its associated fungal species, and to develop environmental-risk models to improve the prediction of outbreaks of future infestations. This project has been internationally recognized for a systems biology approach, particularly the use of molecular and genomic research to inform ecological-scale studies and risk model development in forest pest management. Knowledge outcomes of this project have been used by provincial and federal agency decision-makers to inform the environmental risk assessment process for containment and the potential spread to new habitats.