Black Hills National Forest

US Forest Service
Black Hills National Forest
1019 N. 5th Street
Custer, SD 57730
605-673-9200

Telephone for the
Hearing Impaired
605-673-9227

News Release

USDA Forest Service

Black Hills National Forest

Contact: Frank Carroll (605) 673-9216/1504, or email us at r2 blackhills webinfo@fs.fed.us

FORESTERS ARE FIGHTING INCREASING INSECT ATTACKS IN BLACK HILLS

RAPID CITY, SD: September 13, 2004

Fall colors came early to the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming this year, and foresters are working hard to change the yellow and red to green.

The colors they are seeing from helicopter flights high above the forest are the yellows and reds of changing aspen and dead and dying pine trees.

“We are seeing a continual progression of what were once smaller pockets of pine beetle mortality,” said Bob Thompson, forest ranger on the Mystic District. “Dead trees are now expanding, and we are seeing the area getting much, much larger.”

Foresters like Thompson have new tools to help them to solve the problem much more quickly than in the past. The Healthy Forests Initiative and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2004 have added new authorities to more traditional tools including thinning contracts and prescribed fire that allow them to make quick decisions that are saving forests from insects and fire.

The key to protecting forests from insects and fire, foresters say, is to thin the forest so that tree crowns are not touching one another. “If you have big acres of pine trees, the first and best defense is to thin them out,” said Kurt Allen, forest entomologist for the Rocky Mountain Research Station. “That’s the best thing you can do for pine trees.” Foresters thin trees with chainsaws and mechanical harvesters as well as prescribed fire.

New decision authority allows foresters to do the environmental analysis on forest projects without the long waits on paperwork and process that often plagued timely action in the past.

Bark beetles, including mountain pine beetles and pine engraver beetles, have reached epidemic proportions, killing over 1.3 million mature pine trees across the Black Hills since a major outbreak began over five years ago.

“Two mountain pine beetles produce potentially 200 offspring so you get that big build up really fast,” Allen said.

Foresters have a head start in thinning forested areas south of Deerfield Reservoir where insect attacks could affect local economies. Through aggressive monitoring, Thompson and his people are identifying, planning, and issuing contracts to take care of the main problem areas.

“Once a tree is dead, it loses its commercial value,” Thompson said. “So we’re not able to sell those trees and have them removed from the forest.”

Beetle-killed pine trees fueled massive forest fires in California in 2003 and have created major problems for pine forests across the West since the late 1980’s. For example, over 90 percent of pinyon [PIN-yone] pine trees around Santa Fe, NM, have been killed in the past five years by western pine beetles.

Water, now scarce after five years of drought, and nutrients, also in short supply, are more available to trees that are left after thinning. Scientists estimate that in many areas where there were historically 30 to 70 trees on each acre, there are now over 500 trees.

The story is the same on the Front Range of Colorado and in many other warm, dry western pine forests where pine beetle attacks are an increasing challenge.

For more forest news, visit the Black Hills National Forest website at www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills.