Volunteers Cut More Than 500 Trees at Old Orchard Beach Park
The Ocean Park Association is also releasing beetles and tagging trees for pesticide treatment to slow the hemlock woolly adelgid.
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Volunteers removed more than 500 trees at Guild Park in Old Orchard Beach after an infestation of hemlock woolly adelgid, WMTW reported.
The cutting was carried out under a forest management plan drawn up by the Ocean Park Association's Environment and Natural Resources Committee, which said most of the trees taken down were already dead. Opening the canopy is intended to let the forest regenerate, according to committee members.
The invasive insect is roughly the size of the ballpoint of a pen, and its nests appear in spring as white puffs on branches. "Each one of those white puffs has 100 woolly adelgids that come crawling out as larvae," said committee member Mark Lauritano, who described the larvae attaching to needles and drawing sap from the tree.
The committee has logged and tagged more than 3,000 trees with a diameter of 10 inches or more across the 20-acre park. Some carry orange ribbons marking them as candidates for pesticide treatment, and the group has released 500 beetles that feed on adelgid.
Committee member Janet Anderson said a woodland garden planted with native species could be added where tree removal equipment was staged.
This story was first reported by WMTW.
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