Special Inspection of Pine Wilt Disease Control Sites
Suwon NewsPublished 2020.03.02 06:01
Gyeonggi Province targets 18 cities and counties...Special crackdown on illegal movement of pine trees through next monthPlans to implement continuous operation of illegal movement checkpoints and various other efforts
[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 2nd that it will conduct a "Special Inspection of Pine Wilt Disease Control Sites" targeting 18 cities and counties across the province for the preemptive prevention of pine wilt disease.
"Pine wilt disease" is a disease in which pine wood nematodes rapidly proliferate within pine trees and Japanese stone pines over a short period, causing tree death, with a fatality rate reaching 100 percent. When the long-horned beetle vector carrying pine wood nematodes gnaws at new shoots of healthy trees, the nematodes present in the vector invade through the wound sites and proliferate.
Accordingly, the Province plans to carefully investigate and analyze control sites by the end of this month, including the treatment of dead trees at pine wilt disease control project sites, inspection of omitted trees, and the status of implementation of preventive tree injections, with the goal of immediately improving any deficiencies and ensuring effective disease control.
In addition, the Province will implement a "Special Crackdown on Illegal Movement of Pine Trees in Spring" for two months from March to April to systematically prevent the spread of pine wilt disease.
The special crackdown will target businesses handling pine trees (such as pine species including Japanese black pine, daimyo pine, Japanese stone pine, and Korean stone pine) (sawmills, landscaping companies, etc.) and farming households that use firewood.
In particular, the Province will focus on intensive crackdowns on illegal production and distribution of pine trees using landscaping tree and log transport vehicles, as well as violations such as failure to carry confirmation labels and use of pine wilt disease-infected trees as firewood.
In addition, the Province plans to make continuous efforts to prevent the spread of pine wilt disease, including the continuous operation of 10 checkpoints for illegal movement of pine trees targeting 9 cities and counties including Gwangju City.
Lee Seong-gyou, Director of the Forestry Division, stated, "We have secured 12 billion won in disease control budget to ensure stable financial support to prevent the spread of pine wilt disease this year," and added, "We will do our utmost to prevent the spread of pine wilt disease and provide a pleasant forest environment to our residents."
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