I know we have several very knowledgeable forest professionals on the site. With this prolonged dry period I'm seeing a lot of pine beetle infestations in clusters rather than the isolated dead tree here and there due to Ips or other pests. Cutting the beetle spots plus a buffer used to be the preferred control, is that still the case ? If the spot is in an un-thinned plantation, do you think thinning the stand at that time will reduce the chance of further infestations ? Or does the disturbance from thinning make it more likely to get infestations ?

My line of thinking is that reducing the basal area will make it harder for the beetles to spread. Only downside is that stumpage prices really suck but losing an entire stand to beetles sucks more.

I'm curious as well. I noticed a crap ton of dead pines on top of Talladega Mountain the other day.

A thinned stand will definitely reduce the chance of infestation by spb.

A good resource to find out where they are: https://gis.forestry.alabama.gov/portal/apps/View/index.html?appid=93b1a701a22b4fd38326f771c2896fe0

We cut a lot of beetle infestation back around 2000 when we had two dry summers in a row . We cut a lot of 2 or 3 acres blocks an some places we cut the whole stand . Smaller spots timber company dozed them down an pile them up in middle keep from spreading . Beetle are spread whichever direction wind is blowing . Don’t think they can fly . All the spots we cut was on top of ridges where beetle blew across hollows never cut any in low places . Got take down every tree that has beetles or they will spread . Just my first hand experience

Making matters worse is the pine market right now. Good luck getting anyone to cut beetle infested areas. Really a no win situation at the moment.

I’d think the added stress from thinning would increase bugs.
They’re ad bad this year as I’ve ever seen.

We run a different operation than most, but we can’t justify moving to an SPB area for simply “cutting a buffer”. It’s a good way to put a logger out of business and they don’t generally like that. It needs to be 15+ acres, preferably more. Most folks don’t know what a 15 acre SPB spot looks like. They think 2 acres is 20 acres, and 10 is 100.

So - yes, thin the stand while you are there. Probably only way to get a logger to show up anyway.

WAY worse in 2017 in SW AL. On the order of about 20 times more widespread. I got 150 letters back in 2017. Less than 20 this summer.

I noticed a lot of dying trees on some land I lease. The timber manager doesn’t seem to care so here we are. There’s a couple of spots on that map that are real close to my land

Unrelated question. Can the trees be salvaged for lumber?

We’re fortunate that we have a real good relationship with a logger, his shop is not far from the location and he can hit that spot between jobs. He knows he’ll have lots of other opportunities to cut for us.

Structurally yes, but they usually have a blue stain on the boards. It usually goes to pulp no matter the size. But if you took it to a customer sawyer they can make lumber out of it.