Bark Beetle Outbreak: Infested Tree Removal Imperative

[TreeGuyHR]

Hey all:

Here in the Mid Columbia Gorge area (Hood River, White Salmon, Mosier The Dalles) we have a bark beetle outbreak caused by California Five-spined Ips (Ips paraconfusus) in Ponderosa pine.

Problem: how to reach out to and convince all the owners to treat the trees (cut, pile and burn, or chip, utilize big wood as firewood or saw-logs) before spring, when it will get even worse?

i will; be writing an article for the local paper, and am thinking of organizing a meeting between the County (owns forest land), small and large private owners, loggers, mill buyers, and arborists.
Any ideas?

Anyone dealing with a similar problem?

The browned trees increased last fall at least five fold over the previous year, and next year will likely be a disaster. Many trees are large -- 2-4 ft. in diameter, and 80 - 140 ft. tall, and some in tight suburban areas, some rural, some forest. The bark beetle activity had been simmering along for several years, but the storm breakage from the January ice storm really kicked up the beetle population.

I have done a few jobs, but for sanitation to make a dent in the beetle population (and significantly reduce pine mortality next year), it's a drop in the bucket.:bang: I have tried topping and systemic insecticide app (by climbing a tree with a back-pack sprayer in one case!), but except for trees with just a few limbs, or small trees, pruning plus systemic treatment is probably not economical.

There are probably at least 1000 currently infested trees within a 10 square mile area (not continuous acreage, but centered on towns where the trees have high ornamental value as well as timber in small woodlots), either single or in groups of 2, 3, to 20. Each large infested tree probably has enough beetles to infest five more.:msp_scared:

Getting a project going would be job maker, but I am also grieving for the loss of so many great trees.

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[treeman75]

Black Hills Forest Initiative.mov - YouTube

 

[jefflovstrom]

Are utility ROW's involved?
Jeff

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[TreeGuyHR]

Are utility ROW's involved?
Jeff

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Quite a bit -- in our area, "Trees Inc." does all the line clearance -- in this case, take-downs if the dead tree is over the wire. Some jobs could involve them clearing the side over the wire or topping the tree, and a tree service doing the rest. I should contact them as well to team up and offer clients lower bids.

Bottom line is to get those trees dealt with before spring.

A tree I tried to save by topping and spraying with systemic:

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[beastmaster]

Here in the San Bernadino mountains we had a severe bark beetle problem in the 80's and 90's. The county and state went to war spending millions of dollars to the fight to save our forest. I don't think anyone knows for sure if it was this all out assalt or if it was other factors that finally got a handle on the bark beetle epidemic.
It was so bad it has literally changed the landscape. Once where there was pine forests, have now been replaced by Cedars. Some areas you can no longer find squirrels. Not sure how that is related, but they left with the pines.
I worked on a foresty bug crew where after a tree was found to be currently occupied with beetles were would remove it and spray it with lindane. When for whatever reason the tree couldn't be sprayed, we would wrap it in thick plastic sheet. On Natoinal forest land we would,''cut and scatter,'' leaving nothen above a few feet high. Ibs, not being good flyers need height to get any distance. Is is also why you sometimes see a river of dead trees down ravines. The beetles use the prevailing winds that are funneled through them to take flight.
We tried topping to remove Ibs if caught early enough, but that is a crap shoot at best and even if it works you have an ugly deformed tree.
Removal of active trees, plus quarantine of hot area's, that don't allow the removal of pine wood are a good start. The beetles can smell a stressed tree and are attracted to them. Old trees and trees near urban developments, thou decks, where cabans or homes have been built are sometimes some of the first to go.
I know some will disagree but I don't think systematics are effective. Spraying to be effective has to be done in tune with the departure of the beetles. It doesn't harm them under the bark, if it rains the tree needs to be sprayed again. Ibs like the tender bark in the upper canopy, so spaying just the base is ineffective.
Education of the locals about the bark beetle is important. We would often times see outbreaks around wood piles where infected wood was stacked and stored. People need to know how to inspect their trees for beetles, and seeing signs such as frass and pitch tubes notify someone or remove the tree themselves before their other tree are attacted. People need to know its not wise to trim or remove branches in the warm weather months. High value trees could maybe benefit from a few deep waterings if the area is experiencing drought conditions. The trees have natural defenses to fight off the beetles, but when stressed for whatever reason the beetle gets the upper hand.
Check with your local forestry dept. and see what they have in place. I bet the Calif. Dept. of forestry has a lot of information you could use. My experence with the bark beetle is ten year or more old so there could be some new developments. hope maybe some of this is helpfull. On privit property thinning is benafical, We use to call beetle trees,''Cailfornia golden pines

 

[TreeGuyHR]

Thanks for the reply, Beast (or do you go by Master?).

Great hearing about your experiences. Chemical control is expensive, whether it is lindane on logs (probably not registered for standing trees?), a carbamate like Sevin as a preventative on standing trees at flight time, or a systemic before flight time.

The tree I treated was a big pine that I topped and pruned in late August/early September. I sprayed the top 20 limbs and 15 ft. of trunk with Safari (a neonictinoid) in order to control any additional beetles that might attack the tree, because the CA 5 -spined were still flying and I had just wacked it, producing a lot of attractive fresh resin. In another application to three small cedars and cypress, it did prevent brood development from ongoing bark beetle attack (don't know the species, on of the minor ones). The adults died under the bark after excavating some egg galleries. I had to go back and remove two limbs that browned in the Fall, and there is one additional one I'll have to get as well.

Still trying to figure out a plan to REMOVE as many of these trees from the area as quickly as I can.

 

[TreeGuyHR]

Here is an update:

Bark Beetle Infestation - YouTube

 

[beastmaster]

Here is an update:

Bark Beetle Infestation - YouTube

Very informative. Now getting it seen by the general public is the next challenge. I had forgotten about them being vectors of that blue fungus. So it was a help to me too.
I feel a little humbled knowing I was telling a PhD about bark beetles.
Keep fighting the good fight, unchecked those beetles will change the landscape. The fire danger should be emphasized also. A stand of 100 foot dead pines is more than enough to get a crown fire started in the live trees, and smaller dead ones are excellent ladder fuels that can transform a small brush fire into a towering inferno.
Good luck. Wade

 

[TreeGuyHR]

Very informative. Now getting it seen by the general public is the next challenge. I had forgotten about them being vectors of that blue fungus. So it was a help to me too.
I feel a little humbled knowing I was telling a PhD about bark beetles.
Keep fighting the good fight, unchecked those beetles will change the landscape. The fire danger should be emphasized also. A stand of 100 foot dead pines is more than enough to get a crown fire started in the live trees, and smaller dead ones are excellent ladder fuels that can transform a small brush fire into a towering inferno.
Good luck. Wade

I'll be putting the YouTube link on a flier I'll be handing out to past clients and their neighbors. I am humbled by how much people know about trees by working with them for a living, BTW. If you make repeated, first hand observations and try to explain them with an open mind, you are doing good science (as opposed to only looking for things that support pre-conceived notions). I only put my degree front and center when working with a law firm -- gotta use all the tools you have in that setting.

 

[treeseer]

... I am humbled by how much people know about trees by working with them for a living, BTW. If you make repeated, first hand observations and try to explain them with an open mind, you are doing good science (as opposed to only looking for things that support pre-conceived notions)....

:msp_thumbup:

 

[DHeywood]

Hi,
Just resurrecting this thread, to see if anyone has better ideas these days about how to approach the Pine Beetle epidemic? I'm in Nevada County, CA, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, between Sacramento/Tahoe... (very generally speaking). Tree deaths are quite visible, and yet not as bad as other areas, yet. Any thoughts on effective treatment that could be possible for an entire community, if we came together to address this? In other words. the $250 per tree for Tree-Age treatment, or hiring an arborist to come out and remove your trees, are just too expensive for most property owners. Yet, their inaction causes the infestations to worsen. What can we do? Perhaps working cooperatively as a community.
Any thoughts?