[rellimpank]

--log it or lose it--

[D-Chivas]

Looks like we need to clear cut and allow more forest fires.

[Paloma_55]

If we allow Nancy Pelosi to be the speaker, she and her friend Barbara Boxer will have no problem expanding the "designated wilderness" areas which do not allow any forest management at all.

One could use helicopters and spray for pine beetles if they wanted to, but the environmental whackos would never allow it.

[sure_fine]

bring back........... DDT

[Sergio]

Something similar is happening in the Big Bear area of California. I spoke to some of the locals who told me that brush fires kill the beetles off as well, but since natural brush fires are quickly put out, the beetle population has increased.

They also say that in the past, brush fires happened often enough that they quickly burned through the leaf litter and dead branches on the ground, quick enough that all the brush on the ground was consumed while allowing trees to survive.

Now there is so much brush on the forest floor that the fires burn hotter and last longer.

[socal_parrot]

Lake Arrowhead, CA and the surrounding mountain forest area were hit by the bark beetle. We lost 11 pines on our 1/4 acre lot. If the pines have enough water, they can survive the beetle. Pat of the problem is drought and part of the problem is too many tree per acre. The envirowackos don't want the forests thinned to allow for healthy growth, so you get too many trees exsisting on too little water.

Below is a picture taken near Lake Arrowhead in 2002...

[Paloma_55]

On a smaller property without a LOT of infestation, you can spray an infected tree early with SEVIN, a colorless, tasteless, and odorless toxin. The lower 10' is all it takes. The tree actually becomes a "TRAP" because when a female lays eggs, the males will come in to fertilize the eggs, (they die on contact) and other females will come in to lay eggs (they swarm a tree) and die on contact.

The SEVIN breaks down within a month to inert compounds.

I have done this many times and saved a LOT of trees.

The key is to walk your property often, look for yellow doughnut shaped clusters on the trees, look for yellow/brown crumbs at the base of the trees, and spray them early.

It is a cheap way to kill beetles. I have had trees get infected, sprayed them, had them survive (because the tree can overwhelm the beetles if they don't penetrate it with too many holes) and stop the beetles from spreading.

If a tree gets infected and is dying, you have to cut it down, cut it up, stack it, spray it, and cover it with a black/dark tarp in a sunny spot to dry it out while the larvae are still young.

[yankeedame]

(Lets not forget...)

The emerald ash borer (EAB) is a devastating exotic
insect pest of North American ash trees. First found
in Detroit in the summer of 2002, this insect has killed millions of ash trees in Michigan and has since been discovered
in parts of Ohio and Indiana. If the spread of EAB
is not controlled, it could eliminate ash trees as a species
from North America.

[Calvin Locke]

Maybe you need climate change.

Back in the late 1970s, one Winter, we set/matched records for a deep freeze - consecutive days at/below freezing, at/below zero, etc.

The upside was that it wiped out the yearly gypsy moth/tent caterpillar [thanks to Tufts U, for the original] infestation
for decades. They've only recently been encroaching back.