Tag Archives: forest pests

Smokies add 2 new beetles, canopy cages in fight against hemlock adelgid

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Knoxville News Sentinel 5/20/2013
Excerpt:      “COSBY, Tenn. — At the eastern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, not far from Cosby, Tenn., are three 25-foot-tall hemlock trees enveloped in nylon that appear out of nowhere like circus tents in the middle of the forest.

They’re called canopy cages. Six years ago the University of Tennessee and the U.S. Forest Service tested them at Blackberry Farm in Blount County, and now they’re being employed in the Smokies to help control the hemlock woolly adelgid, a tiny, nonnative insect pest that has been killing the park’s hemlocks for more than a decade.  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/may/20/smokies-add-2-new-beetles-canopy-cages-in-fight/?partner=RSS

Black Hills forest management survives latest environmental challenge

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Rapid City Journal 5/15/2013
Excerpt:    “Black Hills National Forest management policies on fighting wildfires and mountain pine beetles have won another court challenge by environmental groups who believe the policies hurt sensitive wildlife species.

A recent decision in Wyoming federal court released Tuesday by South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley upheld an amended management plan for the Black Hills National Forest.   South Dakota joined in the lawsuit in support of the U.S. Forest Service, as did the state of Wyoming and the Black Hills Forest Resource Association, a timber industry association.   …”
Read entire article at http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/black-hills-forest-management-survives-latest-environmental-challenge/article_ad436d4f-500b-5283-a0f3-9fa3c7e3cf2e.html

White-nose syndrome found in Daniel Boone National Forest

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Lexington Herald Leader 5/3/2013
Excerpt:        “Tests have confirmed the presence of a deadly bat disease for the first time in the Daniel Boone National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday.

The disease, called white-nose syndrome, had been confirmed earlier elsewhere in Kentucky. The disease, named for the white fungus that appears on bats that have it, was first seen in 2006 in New York, and it has since killed millions of bats as it spread through the eastern part of the country.  Surveys of 38 bat-hibernation caves in Daniel Boone National Forest found bats with the disease in six caves, Forest Service biologist Sandra Kilpatrick said in the news release.   …”
Read entire article at http://www.kentucky.com/2013/05/02/2624340/white-nose-syndrome-found-in-daniel.html

Colorado: Hermosa Creek conservation bill gets a bipartisan introduction in Congress

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Summit County Voice 4/27/2013
Excerpt:     “FRISCO — Colorado lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are reaching across party lines to try and protect more than 100,000 acres of the Hermosa Creek watershed north of Durango.

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Rep. Scott Tipton(R-CO) are introducing companion bills that would establish management for the Hermosa Creek Watershed based on recommendations from the Hermosa Creek River Protection Workgroup. The panel includes local water officials, conservationists, sportsmen, mountain bikers, off-road-vehicle users, outfitters, property owners, grazing permit holders and other interested citizens.  …”
Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2013/04/27/colorado-hermosa-creek-conservation-bill-gets-a-bipartisan-introduction-in-congress/

EDITORIAL: Take care of what you own

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Rapid City Journal 4/14/2013
Excerpt:          “OUR VIEW: Fighting mountain pine beetle infestation on federal properties a higher priority than buying more land.  South Dakota’s Sen. John Thune and Rep. Kristi Noem are sponsoring legislation that would pump more money into pine beetle control projects on U.S. Forest Service lands. While there’s little opposition to funding beetle projects on national forests, the controversy comes from the source of the funds.

Thune’s legislation, and Noem’s companion bill in the House, would take money earmarked for Forest Service land acquisition for five years and spend it on timber management projects to control insects and reduce wildfire risks.  …”
Read entire article at http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/editorial-take-care-of-what-you-own/article_ac8445e5-507b-5b46-93f5-2ef988cd4b0a.html

Environment: What’s the outlook for Colorado forests?

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Summit County Voice 4/7/2013
Excerpt:         “FRISCO — I’ve been working my way through a series of stories about Colorado’s forests the past few weeks — after all, lodgepole pines are only one part of the state’s forest landscapes, and in looking at the overall picture, it’s clear that global warming and drought are probably going to have a big effect.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Even though the pine beetle outbreak was scary big and scary fast, it looks like those lodgepole groves will grow back just fine, at least in the short-term (the jury is still out on the impacts of global warming).  ….”
Read entire article at http://summitcountyvoice.com/2013/04/07/environment-whats-the-outlook-for-colorado-forests/

South Dakota Congressional delegation split on legislation blocking Forest Service land buys

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Rapid City Journal 3/28/2013
Excerpt:         “South Dakota’s congressional delegation is united in the battle against the mountain pine beetle but divided over recent legislation that would divert U.S. Forest Service land-acquisition funds into bug-control projects.

Republican Sen. John Thune has introduced legislation that would prevent the U.S. Forest Service from making land acquisitions for five years and use the money saved for timber management to control pine beetles and reduce wildfire threats.
Read entire article at http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/south-dakota-congressional-delegation-split-on-legislation-blocking-forest-service/article_302f527d-0611-5c8e-b0aa-31b2fb2fcc2f.html

Forest industry may reap the benefits of skyrocketing timber prices

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Aspen Business Journal 3/25/2013
Excerpt:      “While Colorado’s forests continue to suffer from beetle epidemics at high altitude and the hangover from a century’s fire suppression at lower altitude, there’s some good news out there for those who believe in active forest management.

Timber prices, which were bottomed out during much of Colorado beetle kill epidemic, are set to skyrocket, and the state’s timber industry may be rising in time to take advantage, industry experts said. And while there are millions of acres of standing dead timber that may never be harvested, there’s also some good news out there for at salvaging at least some of the beetle-kill pine, as well.  ….”
Read entire article at http://www.aspenbusinessjournal.com/article.php?id=8351

Tiny bug offers ray of hope for hemlocks

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Roanoke Times 3/23/2013
Excerpt:      “SALT POND MOUNTAIN — On Friday a Virginia Tech research team working to stop destruction of Appalachia’s iconic hemlock trees unleashed a new microscopic weapon in the fight against the tree-killing woolly adelgid.

Tech entomology professor Scott Salom and graduate student Katlin Mooneyham seeded infested hemlocks on private property near Mountain Lake in Giles County with about 1,000 laboratory-grown eggs of the Laricobius osakensis, a newly discovered beetle species from Osaka, Japan, that preys almost exclusively on the woolly adelgid.  …..”
Read entire article at http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/1799360-12/tiny-bug-offers-ray-of-hope-for-hemlocks.html

Dust settles on legislative session but Utah land war continues

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Deseret news 3/17/2013
Excerpt:      “SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s conservative lawmakers this session continued to engineer their own version of a coup d’etat against the federal government over its land management policies, passing a flurry of resolutions and new laws that assert and reiterate dominion over the state’s destiny.

They urged the federal government to butt out of Utah prairie dog management in Iron County and leave it to the locals, and told them to drop San Juan County populations of the Gunnison sage grouse from consideration of being named to the Endangered Species list.  …”
Read entire article at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865576052/Dust-settles-on-legislative-session-but-Utah-land-war-continues.html?pg=all