The epidemic appears to be an historic event that occurs every 200-300 years. This differs from the mountain pine beetle epidemic, which is thought to have occurred due to fire suppression and crowded forest conditions. With the imminent expansion of the spruce beetle epidemic, District resource specialists have identified opportunities to reduce the impacts of the epidemic. Wildlife, scenery, recreation, and other resources are affected by insect epidemics. Quickening the regrowth of trees in beetle-killed stands, reducing the potential for catastrophic wildfire, and reducing the risk of future infestations of this magnitude will help address the larger issue of forest health that has led to the beetle epidemic.
Forest health is a measure of the hardiness of the forest as a whole, or an ecosystem.
Ecosystems are an arrangement of living and nonliving things and the forces that act upon them. Activities proposed under this project are expected to begin this summer and continuing for 3-5 years. The treatments proposed for South SERP would take place over the next five years. Some currently infested spruce trees will be logged, while other stands of uninfested spruce are proposed to be harvested if and when they become infested by epidemic levels of spruce beetles. Prescribed fire will be used to reduce the slash created by commercial logging.