The Austin Kraal Memorial Volunteer Program is Off and Running
The second summer of the Austin Kraal Memorial Volunteer program kicked off Saturday with a walk through the woods with staple guns and stinky pheromone patches.
Despite several inches of fresh snow on the ground, 14 volunteers gathered at the Valley View Summer Homes area to staple pheromone patches to Douglas Firs. The objective of the project was to combat bark beetle infestation.
Bark beetle kill is a huge problem in the Sawtooth Basin. These beetles are turning the forests into a brown mass dead trees, increasing risk for wildfire, and causing destruction to the watershed. Though it is less so in the Valley View neighborhood, destruction from the beetle kill is still evident. Forest Service Special Use Manager Stacy Clark said that the neighborhood is much more open than it used to be.
In an attempt to save the remaining beautiful old growth Douglas Firs in the Valley View area, the volunteers spent the day stapling nearly 3,000 pheromone patches to all the trees in the neighborhood. When a tree is infested, the beetles release a pheromone that sends out a signal to incoming beetles to find a different tree. This pheromone was manufactured into little patches and works to deter beetles from infesting healthy trees by telling them the tree is already infested.
Forest Service employees Laura Lowrey, who specializes in entomology, Forester Jim Rineholt, and Stacey Clark led the charge with an educational description on how to distinguish a Douglas Fir from a Lodge Pole and how the pheromone patches work.
After a morning spent stapling patches, the day ended with sandwiches provided by the Sawtooth Society and the assurance that the Douglas Firs would be beetle-free for another year.
Kate Lopez staples three patches to the large Douglas Fir
Jim Rineholt explains how the pheromone patches are effective in combating bark beetle.
Greg Travelstead finds a high spot to place the pheromone patch.
