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Parks & Recreation Department May 3, 2010 Bark Beetle Mitigation Plan For more information or questions contact: City of Laramie Parks and Recreation Department Mike Zook, Parks Manager [PHONE REDACTED] City of Laramie Community Development Brian Forster, Code Enforcement Inspector [PHONE REDACTED] Wyoming State Forestry Division Mark Hughes, Community Forestry Coordinator [PHONE REDACTED] Les Koch, Forest Health Coordinator [PHONE REDACTED] Local Tree Services: Wyoming Trees - 1203 South 2nd Street [PHONE REDACTED] Indian Paintbrush Tree Surgery - 314 South 24th Street [PHONE REDACTED] Tiger Tree - 1938 Harney Street [PHONE REDACTED] Fox Enterprises - 1838 Curtis Street [PHONE REDACTED] Photos: www.fs.fed.us www.cheyennecity.org The City of Laramie does not endorse the products or practices of the following vendors. This list is provided as a service to citizens and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all available providers. Citizens are encouraged to seek professional advice and services, and compare prices for those services. ---PAGE BREAK--- Bark beetles are endemic to the Rocky Mountain Region, and have been common for thousands of years. Beetles are always present in mature forests, and are one of nature’s ways of renewing the forest. Under normal conditions, bark beetles cause single tree and small group mortality. Populations of beetles are naturally regulated by cold temperatures, other insects, and birds such as woodpeckers. It would take temperatures of -40 degrees Fahrenheit or colder for sev- eral weeks to freeze bark beetles, as they produce their own ethyl- ene glycol anti-freeze for winter protection. The current mountain pine beetle epidemic in the Snowy Range area, west of Laramie, is the largest in recorded history. On May 3, 2011, the City of Laramie revised the Bark Beetle Mitigation Plan in response to the current mountain pine beetle epi- demic that the Rocky Mountain Region is experiencing. This plan incorporates the principles of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) structure to alleviate the impact on the community that this epidemic may cause. This plan has been developed specifically to manage conifer trees in the parks, cemetery, and open space areas that are owned by, or are the responsibility of the city for care and maintenance. For the complete Bark Beetle Mitigation Plan visit www.cityoflaramie.org. Beetle-infested firewood gathered from the national forests and transported into Laramie serves as a carrier for mountain pine beetles into our community. Gathering of firewood within a beetle-infested forest will bring beetles to town if precautions are not adhered to by the firewood gatherers. The following guidelines for firewood have been established by the US Forest Service: Only cut trees with visible exit holes in the bark (about the size of a pin head) and with all of the needles fallen off the tree. Beetles feed only on the moist tissue between the bark and the wood. They do not live in dry trees, the lumber in your house, or other dry wood. Stripping bark from firewood. This dries out the cambium layer and the developing beetles lose their food source and die. The best time to check for Bark beetles is dependent on warm weather, however early fall and early spring are ideal. Checking your trees for beetles requires you to scrape away the bark since the beetles live beneath it. If your trees are infested, immediately prune and dispose of the infested limbs. If the trunk is extensively consumed by beetles, the entire tree must be removed. To prevent Bark beetles from spreading, the infested trees must be cut and quickly removed, buried, chipped on site, or burned. If ignored, a large number of beetles can move to nearby trees and cause further damage. Avoid stacking infested material next to a live tree. The mountain pine beetle is about the size of a grain of rice. Adult beetles bore into the trunks of pine trees to mate and lay their eggs. They form a vertical tunnel or egg gallery in which they lay upwards of 75 eggs. These eggs hatch producing larvae that continue to bore and eat the cambium layer underneath the bark as they mature through the winter. Then the larvae transform into a pupal stage in early summer and then undergo metamorphosis into winged adult beetles which bore out of their host tree to fly to new green trees and begin the proc-