If you had plans to visit the Crystal Lake recreation area in the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest this week, you should change them. Officials closed the area Tuesday to spray insecticide on pine trees to protect them from a tree-colonizing beetle.
The closure is set to end Sunday.
The Crystal Lake Recr Area will be temp. closed from Apr. 9-14. Ponderosa, Jeffrey/ponderosa pine hybrids, and Coulter pines will be sprayed with an insecticide (bifenthrin) from the base of each tree to 45-feet-high to protect them from the Western pine beetle. 626-574-1613 pic.twitter.com/DSz7u0CqPU
— Angeles National Forest (@Angeles_NF) April 6, 2024
The western pine beetle is small, about 3 to 5 millimeters, but it can cause big damage to pine trees around this time of year. That’s when the little brown bugs exit dead trees to find living ones to tunnel into and lay their larvae. Angeles Forest officials say drought and the western pine beetle have killed nearly 200 trees in the area.
The U.S. Forest Service says tree deaths in recreational areas can create hazard trees, fire risk and threaten infrastructure.
The beetles aren’t all bad
Tim Paine studies pest management in forests at the University of California, Riverside. He said treating trees with insecticides in campgrounds and areas used by people is part of the Forest Service’s policy.
“The western pine beetle is a natural part of the forest,” he said. “They’re a vital part of that ecosystem — a problem from our perspective when they get to really high populations because they can kill large numbers of trees.”
He said the beetles typically have to kill…
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