Pine Bark Beetles - They're Not Just For Mountain States Anymore! Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Macon — Thousands of acres of trees are being killed this summer by one of the worst infestations of Southern pine beetles in decades, forestry officials say.

Carolyn Johnson, assistant refuge manager at Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge in central Georgia, says some of the loggers who have been helping stop the pest from spreading there tell her it is the worst outbreak they've seen since the late 1970s or early '80s. With 179 infested spots across the refuge, Johnson said the map on which they are plotted "looks as if you shot the map with a shotgun."

In the surrounding Oconee National Forest, 2,000 acres of pine trees have been lost so far this year, said Erin Bronk, district ranger for the Oconee Ranger District, which includes forests in Jones, Jasper, Putnam, Morgan and Greene counties.

"We have 700 identified spots scattered over about two-thirds of the Oconee National Forest, which would be an impact area of about 80,000 acres," Bronk said.

EDIT

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/09/08/pinebeetles_0909.html

[kestrel91316]

1. I'm not sure how many more of your posts I can take.......

I'm reaching the point of utter despair.........
:cry:

[hatrack]

2. Trust me, you're not there yet. I've been doing this for six years now . . .

. . . and while I think I can see utter despair way off in the distance, I'm still not certain.

It's kind of like the old joke about the astronomer discussing a universe in which the Earth stands on a gigantic turtle, which in turn stands on another gigantic turtle and so on.

His cosmological description: "It's turtles all the way down!"