Infested trees should be cut down, O’Dell said, as well as any trees directly in contact with their crown or within a buffer zone.ĭespite this plan, action against the beetle is likely to be delayed. “Dead trees are dangerous.”ĭead trees weaken with time and become hazardous. If a homeowner finds signs of a Southern pine beetle infestation on their property, they should contact the Conservation Foundation or another environmental organization for assistance. Sometimes, the ground around the tree will be covered with wood shavings. Signs of infestation include reddening of the needles, popcorn-shaped balls of sap along the length of a tree trunk, along with small holes along the bark. Private homeowners are encouraged to check their own trees for signs of infestation. Island environmental organizations are expanding monitoring on their own properties and each other’s properties, as allowed. The denser a forest is, the easier it is for beetles to go from tree to tree and spread their pheromones. The infestation is of major concern on Nantucket due to the island’s high concentration of pitch pine and Japanese black pine, but also the unmanaged nature of the forests. “They are a teeny-tiny little beetle but they overwhelm the tree by numbers,” said Nicole Keleher, forest health director at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. The beetles shift their efforts to this new tree, and so forth, until the entire forest is destroyed. Once they have killed the tree, a few beetles will find a new live pine nearby, and send off a cloud of pheromones to their neighbors, calling them over. The beetles enter pine trees, eating the inside of the tree, creating s-shaped grooves along the bark called galleries and nesting inside. The beetles couldn’t survive the cold northern winters, and were unable to successfully migrate to higher latitudes.Īs the winters grew warmer in the north, however, and there were fewer cold snaps which usually killed the beetles, they are finding it easier to survive. Southern pine beetles, as the name suggests, were initially localized to the southern half of the United States, traveling as far north as southern New Jersey. The bats have been flourishing around the island, and they roost mostly in pine trees.Īfter discovering the infestation, she called state forestry officials and began contacting other environmental organizations around the island. The Marvin’s Woods stand was where the first northern long-eared bats on the island were discovered, a federally endangered species which O’Dell has been monitoring for years. “For me personally, it’s a little bit devastating that this is the stand where we find the first outbreak of Southern pine beetle,” O’Dell said. It was hard to sense whether the threat was nearby or still far off. They weren’t sure whether the change was slow or rapid. When it restarted in 2022, the numbers had increased dramatically, according to O’Dell, but researchers did not call it an outbreak. When the pandemic struck, testing paused between 20. The following year, no beetles were caught. “We’ve been concerned for a while, but we either thought or we hoped that we had more time,” said O’Dell, who spotted the first infesta tion early this month.Īn outbreak in Long Island, N.Y., prompted concern in Massachusetts in 2014. They had hoped to take more preventative measures before they found themselves on the defensive. O’Dell, wildlife research ecologist at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, along with her team, had been anticipating the arrival of these pests on the island for years. What she was looking at was a southern pine beetle infestation. I was pretty sure what I was looking at,” she said. “Once I got into the woods, I could see the signs. “These are trees that went from perfectly healthy to basically dead within a couple of days,” she said of the 13-acre pitch pine forest at the entrance to Ram Pasture. Email: July 20, 2023) Danielle O’Dell knew something was wrong when she saw the dead trees in Marvin’s Woods.
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