Kevin L. Mentioned that there is a problem with Pines dying in Southern KY

[squarei4dtoolguy]

Does anyone know anything about the problem? I saw a news story back closer to Christmas about the Dept. of Forrestry mass cutting trees in southern Indiana to slow the spread down.

Tom in KY, Seriously.

[Chuck Taylor]

In the Southeast in the past few years, I've heard about several pine beetle infestations. Lots of trees, healthy or not, were felled to contain the spread when the pest was detected. I can only speculate what's going on in Indiana--I simply don't know--but beetles would be my guess.

[Lyndell Thompson]

Tom, I live in southern In across river from louisville. Have not heard anything officially about problem, but me and everybody around me is losing them left and right. I don't know how a person could use them for woodworking though. They die from the top down and awful nasty sap seeps out all over the tree. I could barely stand to burn them in the shop woodstove. Wouldn't even want to think about trying to get a piece of that stuff across a tablesaw. If a person were to try.........johnson's pastewax would be in order. :-) Lyndell

[squarei4dtoolguy]

I was in that area last year some. Greenville and Jeffersonville.

Silk worms killed millions of trees in Ky about 20(?) years ago. Those trees were mostly ornamental trees, Redbuds, Dogwoods, Bradford Pears, Fountain Cherries come to mind. Those trees weren't much force, but it was still a big deal to property owners with small trees. We sprayed and pulled down spooling nests as fast as we could. We managed to save all of our trees. I believe that several bigger trees out in the wild woods around the state were killed by the worms though.

When worms or beetles are involved though, the wood is usually ruined. I saw a topic recently about someone asking if they brought infested wood into the house, would the bugs eat his house? I'd almost be afraid to chance it myself.

Tom in KY, don't want no stinking mess on my tablesaw either.

[Dave Balderstone]

Beetle problem in the boreal forests of Canada, too. In recreation areas there's tremendous pressure to spray even though it will be sueless in the long term and the forest service wants to let the infestations run their course and in remote areas use controlled burns.

Nature doesn't care about wooddorkers...

[Mark & Juanita]

... or maybe it's nature's way of saying, "here's a forest for you to use. If you don't use it, I'll get rid of it some other way"

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[squarei4dtoolguy]

Ah, Clever, but, the forrests here are in kind of a perpetual replenish mode. Meaning most of the trees are too small to cut right now. The trees that are being harvested now are much smaller than the trees that were harvested just 10 years ago. The cut cycle is getting shorter and the growth time is getting shorter. Then there are the developers and the farmers clearing land continuously. Coal mines wrecked the land here years ago, now that the mines are under control, now there's a house, a mobile home or a farm field going up everywhere there's a forrest (was a forrest). The only place in KY that is protected is the state parks. They are releasing smaller trees to keep up with demand. A blight or an infestation of beetles could be a real serious problem.

Tom in KY, and nature said "here's a forrest for you to use. take care of it or you'll lose it.

Not a member of the Sierra Club. Trees are wood, not just hiking scenery.

[George]

Spruce budworm? I presume everyone else searched and failed. We're overdue here in MI for a budworm infestation, and it's going to create some openings in the woods, that's for sure. With pines blister rusts are pretty common, too.

The white birch appear to have recovered fairly well, when a dozen years ago most figured the disease would get them all. Yellow birch, especially the overmature trees, have some viral disease now.

We can't allow things to run their course in the woods. Used to be infection produced tinder which obligingly burned and sterilized the area, the clearings providing isolation when they became too big for infection to cross. Sort of a reverse quarantine.

Trouble is, nature takes a long-term management approach, and human life spans are short.

Sometimes you can get a great look into natural control, though. The tent caterpillars became more and more abundant over about a five-year period here, resulting in some serious defoliation. In response to the large numbers of caterpillars on the menu, a huge gray fly became extremely abundant. Swarms of them were everywhere. Then both crashed below the normal search threshold in a single year.