Czechs fear beetle invasion after trees felled by storm
Pastor Dale Morgan
Czechs fear beetle invasion after trees felled by storm*
PRAGUE, Jan 21 (AFP) Jan 21, 2007
Czech state forestry company, Cesky Lesy, which manages around half the
country's forests, will urgently clear gale-damaged areas fearing a
"bark beetle catastrophe," the agriculture minister told Czech public
television on Sunday.
The extremely mild winter so far could mean the bark beetle, which
thrives on damaged trees, becoming active early and capitalising on the
windfall situation, Cesky Lesy spokesman, Tomas Vysohlid told AFP.
"We have to work flat out to avoid this catastrophe," minister Petr
Gandalovic said, adding that last year's warmer than average summer had
already provided ideal conditions for the spread of the timber eating
beetle.
The state forestry company wants to be given "a free hand" to depart
from its scheduled tree-cutting programme to deal with flattened trees
across the country.
Violent gales which swept the Czech Republic on Thursday and Friday
caused damage to around four million cubic metres of state forests, or
around 70 percent of a normal year's timber harvest, Vysohlid said.
The worst areas were in the southwest of the country and in the centre,
he added.
Gandalovic said timber prices could fall by around 10 percent because of
the number of flattened trees.
Bark beetles are regarded as some of the most destructive enemies of
pine forests but some environmentalists argue they should not be killed
because they mainly attack dead, damaged or dying trees.