Forest inspections for the bark beetle typhoid begin

Environmental protection department specialists are resuming inspections of private and public forests for the spread of the bark beetle from Monday.

According to the Department's announcement, after an unusually warm winter and the arrival of early spring, the bark beetle may become active earlier than usual, so foresters and environmentalists will pay special attention to the condition of forests and the observance of the forest sanitary requirements. 

The bark beetle Typograph becomes active when the air temperature reaches 10–13 degrees Celsius and starts to multiply mainly in spruce forests.

„The warm winter has created favourable conditions for the insects to overwinter, and rising temperatures and dry weather may further weaken spruce trees and make them vulnerable“, – said the report.

The bark beetle Typograph spreads by gnawing under the bark of the tree, weakening spruce trees and causing them to die.

Environmental inspectors will assess the condition of spruce and pine forests during inspections, looking for trees damaged by the bark beetle, windbreaks and unprotected wood.

Forest owners will be informed about the detected violations and will be obliged to remove the trees affected by the pests in a timely manner. 

According to the Department, the focus will be on prevention and elimination of violations. Administrative penalties will be imposed on forest owners, managers and users only in cases where they fail to comply with mandatory instructions to remedy the identified infringements. 

Forest monitoring will be carried out not only through targeted visits, but also by drones, by officials of the Department of Environmental Protection territory scouting, and by helicopter, in cooperation with pilots of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

In June and December, officials of the Department of Environmental Protection carried out 251 targeted visits and inspected 1,068 forest sites across Lithuania, and issued 112 compulsory instructions to forest owners to clean up bark beetle-damaged trees.

In January, a natural disaster was declared in the forests of Kazlų Rūda, Rokiškis, Šalčininkai, Trakai and Vilnius districts due to the bark beetle typhoid, but was lifted in January as the pest's spread has decreased.