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Some landowners are not just victimized by the Southern pine beetle, but also by loggers. The forestry division can help.
By DAN DeWITT
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 9, 2000
BROOKSVILLE -- When Michael Romanov realized the trees on his land south of Brooksville were infested with Southern pine beetles, he followed the advice of the state Division of Forestry.
He called a logger, both to help control the spread of the disease that has ravaged about 4,000 acres in the county and to earn money from his trees before the beetles rendered them worthless. The logger told him the timber on his 21/2 acres should be worth between $4,000 and $5,000 and would take a few days to harvest.
Instead, a crew spent more than two weeks on his land. When it finally left, the company's owner gave Romanov no notice and no money.
"I came home from work and he was gone," said Romanov, 46. "I got zippo."
Such stories are becoming increasingly common as the pine beetles continue to spread across the county, said Anthony Petellat, Hernando County forester. Some landowners are being victimized twice -- once by the beetles and again by loggers.
Most logging companies are legitimate, he said. But his offices have fielded a variety of complaints about timber harvesters: failing to pay for wood, trying to pass bad checks, leaving debris and telling landowners that they need to clear healthy trees.
"We've got folks who are using scare tactics to remove trees that don't need to be removed right now or don't need to be removed at all," said Erin Albury, a supervisor at the state Division of Forestry office north of Brooksville.
In one case, Petellat said, a logger informed a woman that the beetles had infected her entire 70-acre property.
"The truth of the matter was that she had 12 trees infested," he said.
One worrisome thing, he said, is that landowners will hear these stories and avoid hiring a logger to clear away diseased trees. This endangers the entire pine population of the county because -- as foresters have emphasized since the disease first appeared in Hernando more than a year ago -- cutting and removing infested stands of trees is the only effective way to halt the beetles' spread.
Forestry keeps a list of reputable loggers. Before choosing one, landowners may call the division at 754-6777, ext. 105. Southern pine beetles, which are the size of a grain of rice and kill by destroying the membrane beneath the bark, are considered the most dangerous pine beetle pest in the United States. The signs of the disease include popcorn-like pitch tubes that appear as the trees try to resist the beetles by emitting resin. Before the trees die -- and infested ones inevitably do -- their needles turn red.
Petellat looked for such red tree tops from a helicopter Friday, one of his regular aerial surveys of the county to determine if the beetle was spreading.
And, though the pest is normally semidormant in warm months, the news was not good.
"Now we're seeing more and more frequent large spots, greater than 10 acres," he said.
About 1,200 acres with active infestations remain on public land, he said; another 1,300 already have been cleared. Though the beetles have spread throughout the county, the worst damage is still concentrated in the area south of Brooksville. An additional 1,500 infected acres have been identified on public land, some of which also has been cleared.
The problem will likely continue to worsen, Petellat said. The disease spread so widely because the trees' resistance was strained by last spring's drought; this continues to a degree because of the below-normal summer rainfall. The beetles generally begin to swarm in cooler weather.
That means more and more landowners will have to be careful to avoid situations like the one Georgina Baker found herself in.
She hired a logger to clear the large trees on her 18 acres of land near Culbreath Road, south of Brooksville. Her land was not infected, but she wanted to harvest the timber before the beetles devalued it.
A logger from Lake City promised her $8,000. His first check bounced. He then agreed to pay by cashier's check and promised to deliver it in person to her house. When he did not appear on the appointed day, Baker called the police.
Only after a deputy talked to him did the logger pay Baker.
She had been advised before she hired a logger to demand payment up front. She didn't do so, she said, to avoid starting off on bad terms.
"I would now," she said, "because, see, now I'm experienced."
BROOKSVILLE -- The Division of Forestry will conduct an informal workshop on the Southern pine beetle epidemic in Hernando County at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Alfred A. McKethan Auditorium at the Hernando County Fairgrounds, 6436 S Broad St. For information, call 754-6777.