Timber harvest in big NH state park designed to fight Red Pine Scale
Posted by David Brooks | Friday, March 8, 2013
They're having a "sanitation harvest" at Bear Brook State Park in central New Hampshire, cutting many trees on about 118 acres in an attempt to contain the spread of Red Pine Scale, an insect that weakens trees. Females secrete a white, fuzzy protective covering called “flocculent” which helps insulate the insect over the winter; it is the most visible sign of the insect infestation. Scale insects pierce the phloem of the bark and suck the moisture from the trees stressing them as if there was a drought.
New Hampshire Parks division has done a nice of explaining this online: You can read about it here.
Logs are being taken to Canada and chip to PSNH's wood-burning power plant in Portsmouth.
