Survey: Beetle infestation has eaten 2,000 more trees

FRISCO - An orange band of paint is the mark of death for 1,501 homeowners' trees.

Recently, Town of Frisco officials marked the trees to let residents know that they must be removed from the property, preferably this fall so tree cutting services will not be overwhelmed with calls in the spring, officials wrote in a Town of Frisco press release.

These trees are among the latest addition of nearly 2,000 trees within town limits that have been attacked by the merciless mountain pine beetle.

They were identified in a recent survey, which showed an infestation increase from a 2005 survey by about 1,250 trees, according to the press release. This is consistent with the pine beetle pattern of close to a three-to-one increase each year, the release said.

The town will be cutting and removing the other 488 identified trees which are on town-owned land and rights-of-way. Also, Alpine Tree Services will be disposing of 300 dead trees along Summit Boulevard and Highway 9 up to the new medical center south of the Peninsula Recreation Area.

Letters will be sent by the end of the month to homeowners who must have the trees removed and destroyed. If the trees are left it will result in a higher infestation next year, officials said.

Rick Higgins, Frisco Public Works Department assistant director, advises residents to spray lodgepole pine trees to save ones that are still healthy.

"We are finding that small-diameter trees are now being hit by the pine beetle, so spraying even the smaller trees is advisable," he said in a press release.

Trees infested with the mountain pine beetle cannot be saved, officials said. They usually turn red and die within a year.

In the spring, the town decided to remove more than 9,000 beetle infested trees from the Peninsula Recreation Area as part of a 10-year forest management plan. At the time, Higgins estimated 3,600 would be removed from the recreation area this year.

Pine Beetle Tree Facts

Methods of Treatment Include:
• Peeling the bark
• Chipping the tree
• Remove wood to a site where there are no pine trees within two miles.
• Burn or scorch the logs; wood does not need to be burned completely.

Spraying
Non-infested Trees
— Spray is applied to the trunk only.
— Apply spray up to 20 to 40 feet.
— Apply spray annually between May 1 and July 1 for best results.

About Infested Trees
— The mountain pine beetle has a one-year life cycle — it starts in mid to late summer and lasts until early September.
— New adults fly from July through early September and lay eggs in a new host tree.
— Eggs hatch into larva in late summer or fall and then mature into adults in mid to later summer.
— They favor larger-diameter, low-vigor trees, usually 80 years and older and larger than seven-inches in diameter. However, there is evidence that the beetle is attacking younger and smaller trees.
— Visible signs of infestation include pitch tubes and boring dust around the
base of the tree.

Source: Town of Frisco.
For more information call Frisco Public Works at (970) 668-0836.