| | Sawtooth officials map plans to stop mountain pine beetle
Associated Press -
Sawtooth National Recreation Area officials are strategizing on how to best
stop mountain pine beetles that have infested trees.
If everything goes as planned this spring, timber managers will cut down
about 600 trees in the Salmon River canyon downstream from Stanley and spray
many more with an insecticide.
Efforts could begin in April or May.
The U.S. Forest Service is leaning toward a categorical exclusion from
environmental laws for the anti-beetle projects, and biological assessments
are under way.
Timber program manager Jim Rineholt said the measures are designed to
protect the Salmon River, River Side, Mormon Bend and Redfish Lake
campgrounds, as well as older landmark trees.
"We're trying to save the bigger, more beautiful trees that are left,"
Rineholt said. "When the beetles enter a developed site, they can wreak
havoc. They can easily destroy 80 percent of the trees."
Rineholt estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the lodgepole pine trees in the
Salmon River Campground are infected by beetles or are already dead.
Mountain pine beetles feed on a layer of tree immediately below the bark.
There they also lay eggs, and when larvae hatch, they feed on the same
layer.
The feeding eventually kills the tree.
The insecticide that will be used on the trees is commonly used on crops in
the United States.
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