Landowners must guard against southern pine beetles
JASON ELLIS Jacksonville

Jerry Seeton, resource specialist with the Texas Forest Service, inspects a recently thinned stand in September 2007. The landowner received cost shares from the Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Program. PHOTO: TEXAS FOREST SERVICE

The Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) has not plagued Texas' pine stands in recent years as it has other states. With the help of $1 million provided by the USDA Forest Service and administered by Texas Forest Service, landowners can continue to protect pine stands from the south's most destructive forest pest.

The best long-term solution is to manage pine stands to maintain vigorous growth and reduce susceptibility to attack. Periodic thinning is one of the most effective tools. The Texas Forest Service encourages landowners to thin dense pine stands and take advantage of federal cost shares.

According to John Nowak, SPB Prevention Project leader with the USFS in Asheville, N.C., the Texas Forest Service has developed one of the most efficient and productive SPB prevention projects in the South.

Applications for SPB cost shares in fiscal year 2007 are now being accepted. Interested landowners should contact their consulting forester or nearest Texas Forest Service office to initiate the simple application procedure.

Pine stands in need of first thinning may qualify for cost shares if they are located in one of 25 beetle-prone counties in East Texas. These counties are Anderson, Angelina, Cass, Cherokee, Gregg, Hardin, Harrison, Houston, Jasper, Liberty, Marion, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Panola, Polk, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, Tyler and Walker counties. Pine stands outside these specific counties also may qualify, but only if they fall within a TFS grid block (18,000 acre) area rated as moderate hazard or higher to SPB or the hazard of the stand to be thinned ranks as high. Criteria for participating in the SPB Pre- vention Project and the areawide SPB hazard map can be found on the TFS web page at http://texasforestservice. tamu.edu/shared/article.

The southern pine beetle devastated large areas of East Texas' pine forests in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, but has occurred at very low levels in East Texas since 1997. But, outbreaks tend to be cyclic, with peaks every six-10 years in any given area. Thus, experts believe it is just a matter of time before beetle populations return to high levels.

For more information, visit the Texas Forest Service web page at http://texasforestservice. tamu.edu/, or contact Jason Ellis at (903) 586-7545 or e-mail, jellis@tfs.tamu. edu.

Jason Ellis is a staff forester with the Texas Forest Service.