Korea Forest Service conducts special crackdown on ‘migration of pine trees’ to prevent nationwide spread of wilt disease

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 9th that it will carry out a special crackdown on the movement of pine trees together with local governments and regional forest offices from the 16th to December 11th to prevent the nationwide spread of pine wilt disease.

The Korea Forest Service plans to focus its capabilities on blocking the movement routes of infected trees from areas where wilt disease occurs to other areas and preventing its spread to areas where damage has not yet occurred.

Because wilt disease can spread not only naturally by vectors, but also to distant areas through artificial movement of infected trees, there is a limit to preventing its spread by controlling the affected areas alone.

Nationwide movement and distribution management is important as careless movement of pine trees can lead to new infections in other regions.

The Korea Forest Service explained that new and reoccurring cases were confirmed this year due to the movement of infected landscaping trees, logs, and flower trees in Dong-gu, Busan, Goesan-gun, North Chungcheong Province, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, and Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do.

Lee Yong-kwon, a forest disaster control officer at the Korea Forest Service, said, “Through this nationwide special crackdown, we will thoroughly block the artificial spread route and the national and local governments will do their best to protect pine forests together.”