It took nature 80 years to grow this
tree. This little fellow and his friends
only two days to destroy it.
Fifty thousand acres will be lost to the
southern pine beetle from the air,
infestations appear as reddish clusters
in a sea of green are just
as big sandy near Huntsville.
Several thousand acres have been
destroyed in the last two years.
Service says there are only two ways to
deal with the beetle.
One is salvage. That's the best thing
where you go in and actually utilize
the trees rather than letting them waste
and the other.
Programs to
cut food, and that
will actually stop the spread of the
beetle, 30 percent of the planet's eleven
and a half million acres is owned by the
federal government, the state and big
lumber companies and replant
as many trees as they could.
But 60 percent is in the hands of
thousands of small landholders from
Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and other
urban centers on their land.
Only one acre is replanted for every nine
that is harvested to reverse that
trend. The federal government provides.
So we've contributed
oh.
About a half million dollars a year over
the last four or five years, going
towards subsidizing or
giving landowners incentives to
regenerate their land and try to get more
timber production.
Among those receiving an incentive is
Bill Jordan.
It's something that will benefit not
only me in my later years, but I'm
fortunate enough to live a long time with
my children and their children down the
road.
Back in 1915, the great Piney Woods
simply did not exist.
About 30 years of concentrated cutting
had wiped it out and it could happen
again.
Right now it's a valuable renewable
resource and it will stay that way
as long as we remember to put back what
we take out from trouble.
Channel 5 News.