Pine wilt disease keeps spreading

[Anchor]

The pine wilt disease, which kills pine trees, is spreading like a poisonous mushroom.

No matter how many infected trees are cut down, the problem never ends.

Reporter Lee Cheong-cho visited the site.

[Report]

Amid the green pines, patches of red have appeared.

These are the dead pine trees that have withered due to pine wilt disease.

Workers are busily cutting down the dead trees, but there seems to be no end.

Over 800 trees have died in this area alone, and even with workers working all day, they can only remove fewer than 100 trees.

[Kim Dong-geun/Head of the Forest Work Team, Chuncheon City Forest Association: "It seems that we can't keep up with the spread of the disease. The number of impacted trees continues to rise."]

The number of trees infected with pine wilt disease increased from 380,000 in 2022 to nearly three times that the following year, and last year, 900,000 trees were infected.

There is no cure for pine wilt disease, and once infected, most trees die.

This is a site of collective infection of pine wilt disease.

Even this year, there are piles of logs from last year's logging operations stacked near the work area.

Due to rising temperatures, the timing for the emergence of adult pine sawyers, which spread the disease, is also advancing.

Starting pest control as soon as possible is the only solution.

[Choi Bong-seon/Head of the Forest Protection Team, Gangwon Province: "This is the time when the larvae of the pine sawyers overwinter inside the trees. Pest control must be done while they are inside the trees to be effective."]

The Korea Forest Service has increased the budget for pest control by 20 billion won and is planting broadleaf trees in areas affected by pine wilt disease, but it is struggling to keep up with the spread.

This is KBS News, Lee Cheong-cho.