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The House Emergency Beetle Subcommittee is meeting in Baton Rouge today. The drought last summer made pine trees extremely susceptible to beetle infestations. Pineville Representative Mike Johnson said they are holding the hearing to discuss ways to combat the issue because pesticides won’t work.
“The only way you can stop them is to cut about 150 feet around an infested tree, so it’s a massive undertaking,” said Johnson.
Johnson said the Ips (I.P.S) beetles move from treetop to treetop and within a short amount of time can and have killed many pine trees.
During the session, Johnson sponsored legislation to create the subcommittee because the timber industry is one of the largest in the state.
Johnson said infested trees present multiple dangers, like falling on powerlines and roadways which create infrastructure issues. In April a 60-year-old Pineville woman was killed when a tree fell on her home.
“During a storm that was dead from beetles, and they tragically died as a result of the tree falling,” said Johnson.
The subcommittee will hear from several entities including the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry on how to stop the spread, the Public Service Commission on how our utilities are negatively impacted along with the Insurance Commissioner. Johnson said insurance does not cover the removal of dead trees.
“Which is certainly much less than the cost of repairing a home. We’re trying to see if perhaps we can do something with that. Just really trying to address the fact that this is a significant problem it’s not being talked about statewide,” said Johnson.
Johnson said the cost of removing dead trees from one’s yard can be thousands of dollars.
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