It's beetle work time again
by Ron Jones
It is time once again to do beetle work. By now the fire wood from last season's work should have been harvested. It was well past any risk of transporting live beetles weeks ago. Now it is time to begin felling newly infected trees.
Look for live, green trees with pitch tubes on them or, where trees are too dry to produce much sap, sawdust in the cracks in the bark about the base of the tree and upon the lower branches at the trunk. By felling these early enough you can usually avoid any other work. This is especially helpful where the trees are too remote to harvest the wood. There is plenty of time to de-limb and buck them up as desired before mid-summer.
WATCH OUT FOR THE "SURVIVORS:"
I call them "survivors." These are those trees that can fend off a beetle attack and kill the beetles. Trees that have survived beetle attacks in seasons past look just like the trees you are now looking for. They are green, living trees with pitch tubes on them. It is a shame to unnecessarily kill such a tree. To distinguish these you simply must pinch the pitch tubes between the thumb and forefinger. Soft, mushy ones are newly infected. Crisp, brittle ones are survivors.
Of course, a few of the newly infected trees will eventually turn out to be survivors. It is very difficult to predict these. Therefore, I just fell all newly infected trees. Sometimes I allow my wishful thinking to prevail in certain areas. If these trees succumb, they will be yellow by early summer and I will be obligated to de-limb and buck them up.
For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at contactus@landusecoalition.org or call 303-666-7903.
Last updated October 27, 2003.
URL: http://landusecoalition.org/jones_beetle_commentary.htm