Bye-bye, Beetle

I spent the past day and a half tromping through the pine forest with Tulio and Dave collecting data on all the spots where the pine bark beetle has killed trees.  All of the spots were found last summer and fall, and almost all were treated in some way, either by chopping down the affected trees, or by chopping and then bulldozing and in a couple of cases burning.  The size of the spots ranged from single trees to about 25 acres, and they were scattered throughout the property, although there were a few areas where the spots were concentrated.  I have a whole lot of data to scrub to see if we can see any pattern to the infestation, but the unequivocally good news was that we found no signs of the infestation spreading at any of the spots, and we did not find any new spots.  I will be going out with Tulio every week or so to look for new spots and to make sure all of the treated areas remain clean.  We are hoping that we beat the animal for the year, and that if it starts to resurface next summer, it won't be as severe.