Franklin County Commissioners have approved an emergency ordinance allowing the Florida Division of Forestry to conduct logging operations on McIntyre Road on the eastern end of the county to help control an outbreak of the southern pine beetle.
The commission had rejected a similar request last month, but forestry officials returned this week saying that if they do not clear the affected pine trees now, the infestation could kill many more acres of trees in the area.
The county initiated a ban on large trucks on McIntyre Road in 1992 after the road was damaged by logging trucks leaving deep ruts in the roadway.
The problem became bad enough that emergency vehicles could not use the road to reach the few homes that are located there.
The emergency ordinance approved this week does not lift the ban but instead creates a special use permit for forestry to use the road for a limited amount of time to treat the area affected by the southern pine beetle.
The state will be required to maintain the road to ensure residents can still access their properties.
Franklin County is currently facing outbreaks of the Southern Pine Beetle on numerous locations around the county.
There are at least 12 confirmed sites throughout Tate’s Hell Forest and likely more than that.
These are the 1st outbreaks since aerial surveys began in 2004.
Southern Pine Beetles are considered the biggest threat to forest land in Florida.
Outbreaks can spread over 50 feet a day and can only be stopped by cutting down a large buffer of trees surrounding the outbreak.
Forestry officials said it is like a wildfire – in one affected area in Womack creek an infestation grew from 2.7 acres to 4.7 acres in just 10 days.
There are 232k acres of forest in franklin county so if left untreated the infestation could potentially cause hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in Franklin County.
An infested pine tree will die within six weeks and there is no treatment available to save infested trees.
Southern Pine Beetles can infest both rural and urban areas and are known to kill yard trees.
Infestations of these beetles can lead to widespread forest death, increase the threat of catastrophic wildfire, degrade wildlife habitat, and decrease the overall aesthetics of the area.
Forest management practices such as thinning, prescribed burning, competition control, and use of less-susceptible pine species can improve the health of pine stands and decrease their likelihood of developing southern pine beetle infestations.
However, once an infestation occurs, cutting down a buffer area is the only way to stop the spread.
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