Foresters on the lookout for Southern pine beetles

N.C. Forest Service officials will conduct aerial surveillance in Alleghany, Ashe, Wilkes and other area counties this month in response to a worsening outbreak of Southern pine beetles, said Wilkes County Forester Jody Brady.

The forest service will notify landowners where infestations of the damaging insects are found, said Brady. "If a landowner suspects the insects are in his trees, we will come check," he added.

Brady said Southern pine beetle outbreaks are much worse in Watauga, Caldwell and Avery counties and farther west and southwest in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. "There are whole mountains in East Tennessee with dead trees," he said.

"It's primarily hitting the older Virginia pine, short leaf and pitch pine stands, as well as table mountain pines," said Brady. "It's getting into white pine stands where (the insects) are in epidemic proportion." Among white pines, the older stands mixed with other pine species on drier slopes are most susceptible, he said.

"There are scattered reports in Ashe County... Thurmond Chatham Game Lands (in northern Wilkes near Alleghany) has had outbreaks in recent years."

Small outbreaks were spotted last summer in the Leatherwood development off Elk Creek Road and in the nearby Sampson area of Wilkes and Watauga. Pine trees stressed from dry conditions are more susceptible. Despite recent rain, Brady said Northwest N.C. still has substantial rainfall deficits. "In the fall, we were saying a good, cold winter would kill it back. We didn't get that."

Mild winters the last three years helped Southern pine beetle populations expand.

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