Forest Stewardship Tip of the Day: Watch out for ips beetles infesting firewood piles

Many of you have been out this summer cutting green trees from around your home to help improve your home’s defensible space. Often we decide to keep some of those freshly cut logs on site for use as future firewood. This is a great use of the logs and is encouraged.  However, did you know that freshly cut logs stacked as firewood are at risk of being infested by ips beetles?  When keeping freshly cut logs for firewood it is recommended that you take action to help dry out those logs as quickly as possible.

• Help dry out your logs! – Ips beetles infest logs that are still green, heavy and have moisture remaining in them.  One way to facilitate faster drying of logs is to buck, split and spread the firewood sized pieces in thin layer with the bark facing the sun.  This technique will expedite the drying of the wood and reduce the duration the logs are susceptible to ips beetle infestation.
• Cut and split firewood in the fall! – The fall and winter months are the best time to harvest firewood from your forest.  By cutting, bucking, splitting and spreading firewood out in the sun during the cooler months we reduce the potential of ips beetles infesting our firewood piles when they begin flying again in the spring.
• Harvest red and dead!- A great source of firewood are the trees that have been standing dead in the forest for more than a year.  These trees are already dry, do not attract new beetles and are ready to burn.  This is one of the best ways to avoid ips beetles infesting freshly cut firewood.
• Don’t do this…!- Don’t keep fresh firewood stacked in huge deep piles. Don’t put firewood piles in shady locations where they won’t be heated by the sun. Don’t locate firewood piles near high value trees.

You can determine if your log pile is infested with IPS beetles by looking for little piles of “frass” or saw dusk looking material accumulating on the tops of the logs. Frass is a sign beetles are feeding underneath the bark of those trees.   Feel free to call or email to discuss firewood pile management in more detail. 

Forest Health Outreach – Schedule of Upcoming Forestry Events:

What: Nederland Area Community Forestry Sort Yard Meeting
When: Tuesday, July 12, 7-9 p.m.
Where: Nederland Community Center, 750 Highway 72 North 

Tonight, Tuesday July 12, the County is hosting a community meeting in Nederland to gather community feedback about how the first year of operation of the yard went for the community.  The sort yard is a brand new service for residents in the area and the County wants to make sure that we are providing forest landowners the best in public service at the yard. If you are unable to attend the meeting and would like to submit written comments feel free to do so by emailingpinebeetle@nullbouldercounty.org by Friday July 15.  We look forward to seeing you at the meeting tonight!

Cheers,
Ryan

Ryan Ludlow | Forestry Education & Outreach Coordinator
Boulder County | Land Use Department
P.O. Box 471, Boulder CO 80306
O: 720.564.2641 | F: 303.441.4856
rludlow@nullbouldercounty.org | www.bouldercounty.org/ForestHealth