Korea Forest Service, Full Effort to Control Pine Wilt Disease and Minimize Damage Spread

The Korea Forest Service is making an all-out effort to control the pine wilt disease (hereinafter referred to as pine wilt) to minimize the spread of damage.

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 27th that it will operate a focused control period for pine wilt from the 1st of next month until April of next year.

Workers are clearing infected (dead) trees at the pine wilt disease control site. Provided by the Korea Forest Service.

During the focused control period, the Korea Forest Service will strengthen helicopter and drone surveillance in high-risk areas for pine wilt, promote tree species conversion in special control zones and outbreak clusters, block the spread routes of pine wilt within national seed orchards and important pine forests, and conduct special crackdowns on illegal movement of pine species.

In particular, the Korea Forest Service plans to designate executives at the director-general level or higher as regional responsible officers to expand the national surveillance network for pine wilt, and hold “on-site briefing sessions” by region to strengthen public-private cooperation systems among local governments and residents.

Pine wilt first occurred in Jeju Island in 2005. By 2015, the number of damaged trees due to pine wilt had surged to 540,000, but thanks to customized control strategies considering regional conditions, the number of damaged trees has recently been maintained below 30,000. Dongnae-gu in Busan was recently restored to a clean area.

However, since complete eradication of pine wilt is practically impossible and considering the recent acceleration of the emergence period of vector insects such as the pine sawyer beetle due to climate change, the Korea Forest Service explained that it will focus on minimizing the spread of damage by strengthening control measures against pine wilt.

The emergence dates of vector insects have advanced: the pine sawyer beetle from May 18, 2020, to May 11, 2023, and the northern sawyer beetle from April 28, 2020, to April 19, 2023.

Im Sang-seop, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, said, “The Korea Forest Service will operate a focused control period and carry out strategic control activities to maintain forests safe from pine wilt,” and added, “We ask for active participation and cooperation from local governments and residents during the focused control period.”