820-Lancast*r Fanning, Saturday, March 5, 1994 WASHINGTON, D.C. An immigrant beeJe with a taste for Scotch pine has taken the joy out of the holidays for many Christ mas tree growers and eventually may threaten all of North Ameri ca’s pine forests. Christmas tree buyers aren’t expected to see higher prices or tree shortages this year, according to industry spokesmen. But the U.S. Agriculture Department estimates that the pine shoot beetle will cost American businesses and taxpayers nearly $9OO million over the next 30 years in damage to tree crops, landscape trees and standing timber. “No question, it will do very, very well in North America,” said Robert Haack, an entomologist with the U.S. Forest Service. “We could build up some large num bers quite rapidly. The beetle has the potential to do a lot of damage here.” The Christmas tree business could greatly speed the process. The seasonal movement of more than 35 million freshly cut trees Northeastern Names Board Officers LEWISBURG (Union Co.) During the first meeting of the new board of directors of North eastern Farm Credit recently, Robert H. Whipple of Towanda was elected as the new board chairman. The new vice chairman will be Donald G. Comer, Jr. of Danville. The other board members include Dennis Spangler, New Berlin; Dale R. Hoffman, Shinglehouse; Thomas M. McCarty, Sugar Run; Lee A. Shaffer, Selinsgrove; Richard B. Crawford, Port Royal; Carroll E. Doan, Knoxville; Har old A. Holt, Middleburg; Richard Kriebel, Benton; Douglas W. Lawton, Wellsboro; Alfred B. Munro, Jersey Shore; and Robert G. Naylor, Factoryville. The board consists of 12 direc tors elected by the membership and one “outside” director elected by the board for a total of 13 board members. The membership is defined as the customers of Farm Credit eligible, voting stock holders who use the credit ser vices of the Farm Credit coopera tive. The board of directors is Christmas Tree Beetle Hits North America could spread the pest all over the continent. And stumps left after the harvest provide ideal breeding spots. That’s the reasoning behind the quarantines established last year in the United States and Canada that prohibit shipment of infected trees outside the county where they were grown. Quarantines of farms have been extended to twice as many coun ties as last year in the two coun tries, but foresters say this will only slow, not stop, the beetle’s inevitable spread to natural woodlands. Six states New York, Pen nsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan and Canada’s Ontario Province have quaran tines this year. Standards are strict. Agricultur al inspectors in both countries check each Christmas tree grove in November, just before harvest. Every tree is inspected for any sign of the beetle. All trees from an infected grove are restricted. “One beetle can literally shut you down,” said Gary Reissen, Farm Credit made up of the farmers who are active members of the coopera tive. The 13th board member is called an “outside” director because by law this person cannot be a borrower with the cooperative. owner of a 1,700-acre Christmas tree farm in Greenville. Mich. The shiny, dark, cylindrical insect, no larger than a match head, is a recent invader from Eur ope and Asia. It has swept through Christmas tree farms around the Great Lakes since it was discov ered last year in Ohio. Preliminary studies show that it will thrive on any of North Ameri ca’s 35 pine species, although it prefers the Scotch pine, the favo rite Christmas tree, which is plen tiful on tree farms and in forests. Pine shoot beetles weaken trees in several ways. New shoots die shortly after a single beetle enters to feed on the soft pulp inside. Heavily infested trees lose shape and eventually become suscepti ble to deadlier diseases. Long term infestations in Europe have reduced the size of pines by as much as 40 percent The beetle has been a problem for decades throughout European and Asian forests, where timber ing is regulated to keep the pest in check. No one knows how the insect entered North America. Some sci entists believe it came in on lum ber used to brace cargo shipped to Great Lakes ports. Hasty research, begun last year by the Forest Service after the bee tle was discovered, suggests that the insect eventually will have a heyday in North America. Nobody can predict how fast it will spread. Scientists are study ing possible ways to control it and JONES-DAIRY W and J PRINGLE K&K McNEAL FARM SERVICE DAIRY SALES AUTOMATION FEED STORE AGRI SERVICE SERVICE Medford, NJ Oxford, PA Hagerstown, MD Greenville, PA Carlisle. PA Towanda. PA 609-267-0198 717-529-2569 301-416-7340 412-588-7950 717-249-1195 717-364-5460 hope to make recommendations next year. Meanwhile, the beetle will find plenty to eat almost anywhere on the continent. The insect has no natural enemies in this part of the world. Entomologists predict and fear that it will spread as far north as Alaska and as far south as Mexico. It is likely to benefit from the North American practice of harvesting timber year-round. In natural conditions, pine shoot beetle infestations spread slowly, allowing biological con trols mainly small wasps to develop. The beetle travels only short distances and breeds just once a year. New colonies start only in freshly opened wood, such as storm-damaged branches, lightning-fractured trunks and chain-sawed stumps. Gary Reissen is one of the Christmas tree growers who con siders himself lucky this year. He carefully pruned each tree throughout the growing season, eliminating any shoot that showed the tiniest sign of a beetle among his 170,000 harvest-ready trees. “It was a lot of work,” he says, “but consider the alternative. It’s not just a one-year type of thing. If all of a sudden you can’t rill an order, do you think they’ll order from you again next year? I don’t think so.” As it turned out, only 1 percent of Reissen’s stock, in one field, was infested. Some of his friends in the business didn’t fare so well. Reissen and other growers wor ry more about the quarantines than about the pine shoot beetle itself. Most Christmas trees are cut before beetles can damage them aesthetically.' Quarantines cost growers money in trees they’re forbidden to sell. The growers support quaran tines as a courtesy to their sister industries, whose trees are older and therefore more subject to deformity or death. ‘This little beetle is a much big ger threat to the timber and nursery industries,” said Joan Gei ger, executive director of the Milwaukee-based National Christmas Tree Association. “We’re just trying to help control it.” The biggest fear among Christ mas tree growers is losing custom ers, who mistakenly may assume that the beetle is a threat to them selves or their homes and switch to an artificial tree. Already, artificial trees are almost as popular as natural ones. “You’re not going to get sick. It can’t eat your house,” Geiger said. “We just hope it doesn’t destroy the industry.” No one knows what becomes of dormant beetles in Christmas trees. “We don’t know whether they die from the heat, drown in the stand or survive to infest other trees,” says Robert Haack. To find out, he and a team of Michigan technicians are to moni tor 12 infested Christmas trees during the coming holidays.
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