Meeting of City, District, and County Officials for Timely Pine Wilt Disease Control Measures
Ulsan City has secured an additional 5.9 billion KRW in national funds from the disaster countermeasure budget for the 2025 Pine Wilt Disease Control Project.
Initially, a total of 21 billion KRW was allocated for the 2025 budget to control pine wilt disease, including 5.6 billion KRW in national funds, 2.2 billion KRW from city funds, and 13.2 billion KRW from Uljugun's own budget. However, with the newly secured disaster countermeasure budget, an additional 5.9 billion KRW each from national and city funds, totaling 11.8 billion KRW, has been added, increasing the total control budget to 32.8 billion KRW.
With the additional budget secured, the city plans to make every effort to prevent the spread of pine wilt disease.
This additional budget was secured as a result of the city actively expressing its control strategy and commitment and requesting budget support during the inspection of the pine wilt disease control site by the Korea Forest Service Commissioner last November.
A city official stated, “We will do our best to carry out the control project in a timely manner to prevent the spread of pine wilt disease and protect Ulsan City's excellent forest resources, including the Yeongnam Alps.”
Due to the impact of climate change and other factors, damage from pine wilt disease is rapidly spreading, and approximately 370,000 trees are expected to be affected in the Ulsan area by the first half of 2025.
Accordingly, Ulsan City plans to focus on securing citizen safety by concentrating control efforts on areas expected to experience damage spread, as well as prioritizing control of high-risk trees around residential areas and roadsides to prevent the spread and inflow of pine wilt disease.
Additionally, the city plans to maximize control effectiveness by introducing various control methods such as drone spraying and small-area clear-cutting.
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