They are not yet out of the forest.
Long Island vulnerable pines, devastated by forest fires last March, face another threat in the form of an invasive species that could another incendiary disaster, the authorities warn.
The southern Pine beetle, which emigrated to the eastern extreme of Suffolk County a decade ago, is devastating the local ecosystem drying the trees and making them susceptible to the fire climate.
“This is a serious and serious problem,” said Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, to The Post.
“They have eat through hundreds, if not thousands of pine acres … These trees that look terrible, do not return to life, and then -The forace for fire,” he added.
The beetle penetrates the tree bark, causing its sap to stop flowing. From there, the green pine needles become orange, and the tree becomes dead wood.
Romaine said that boxes of boxes a day are victims of the insect, explaining that the end of South Fork also has a fierce beating of the trees murderer.
“Conditions to Montauk, you look at Amagansett, it’s like ‘Oh, my God, what happened here?” Romaine said from the time PINCORESCENTE ROAD MONTAUK leads to the Hiter Hills State Park.
“You also see it in Manorville and Calverton, Yaphank and Upton, around the Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is like a small army that moves very slowly but deliberately to eat.”
The Commissioner of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services of Suffolk, Rudy Sunderman, explained that, together with the risk of fire, it has caused fires in the past, there are other dangers associated with the problematic creature.
“The pine beetle problem causes trees that fall, trees are inclined,” he said.
“We have worked on the legs in that, clearing paths of dangerous trees … so we are currently working on methods to mitigate thesis problems.”
The revealing sign of its presence are small round holes in the bark of a tree, according to Sundmanman.
“He is a child or strange,” he said. “You see these pines, and then the bark is peeling.”
Breaking the beetles
The best way to eradicate beetle is the cold climate, but “we housed and we had enough cold weather,” Romaine said.
Now, he hopes that the State puts money to natural insecticides that can stop insect battalions.
The County Executive is especially concerned with beetles this season, after the situation in California last January.
“Much more destructive than fire is pine beetle,” he said. “Because it is killing so many trees every day, and they are helping to deforest our Pine Barrens. It is very worrying.”
To raise awareness, the county is organizing a symposium on the pine beetle and the prevention of forest fires for Weds residents. April 23 at the Riverhead campus of Suffolk Community College.
Romaine said that waiting ten years to do something has had enough consequences, and the time to act is now.
“We simply house this … I want to get attention to this problem,” Romaine said. “Otherwise, we will see our unbutted arid pine, and that will be a problem.”
