The spring heat has triggered the swarming season for spruce bark beetles across large parts of Sweden, raising concerns about new forest damage in regions already heavily affected by winter storms.<\/p>\n
According to the Swedish Forest Agency, bark beetles have now begun flying in most storm-affected areas except the far north. The highest catches in monitoring traps have so far been recorded in Dalarna and G\u00e4vleborg counties, where large volumes of windfallen spruce still remain in forests after storms Johannes and Dave.<\/p>\n
Storm Johannes during the winter brought down nearly 11 million m\u00b3 of forest, while storm Dave in April caused additional damage in southern Sweden, particularly across G\u00f6taland, where more than two million m\u00b3 of scattered windfalls were reported.<\/p>\n
The remaining storm-damaged timber is creating favorable breeding conditions for spruce bark beetles at a time when forestry operations are already facing logistical difficulties. Forest roads remain difficult to access in some areas, while shortages of machinery, transport capacity and growing timber inventories are slowing salvage operations.<\/p>\n
The Swedish Forest Agency warned that untreated windfallen spruce could lead to a larger wave of attacks on standing forests during the coming season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are plenty of windfalls for the spruce bark beetles to reproduce in and if they are not taken care of there is a risk of attacks on standing forests next year,\u201d said Lennart Svensson, national damage coordinator at the Swedish Forest Agency.<\/p>\n
Forest owners in affected regions are being urged to inspect storm-damaged spruce regularly during the swarming period. One of the clearest signs of infestation is reddish-brown drilling dust appearing around the trunk.<\/p>\n
If attacks are detected, authorities recommend removing infested timber from forests as quickly as possible or debarking the logs in order to destroy eggs and larvae before new beetles emerge. According to the agency, newly developed bark beetles can leave infested trees within eight to ten weeks after attack.<\/p>\n
Under Sweden\u2019s Plant Protection Act, damaged spruce and pine exceeding five cubic meters per hectare must be removed. In G\u00e4vleborg, Dalarna and all counties south of those regions, storm-damaged conifer timber must be transported to sawmills or larger timber terminals no later than July 1. In northern Sweden, the deadline is July 15.<\/p>\n
The agency said coordinated action across the forestry supply chain will be critical in the coming weeks to limit the risk of a broader bark beetle outbreak following the winter storms.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n