Oak Bluffs officials are developing a strategy to tackle the spread of the invasive Southern pine beetle, as concerns for fires and other safety issues grow, with the pests leaving behind dead pitch pines.
While a final decision wasn’t made on Tuesday, the Oak Bluffs Select Board asked the town administrator to work with town departments, including parks, conservation, and fire, against the beetles. Dion Alley, select board chair, said he expects to bring a funding request to voters at the April town meeting. “We do need a plan of attack,” he said.
Tuesday’s discussion comes with reports of pine beetles spreading across the Island and into more residential areas.
Select board member Thomas Hallahan, who also works for Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, said he recently heard from Oak Bluffs residents who were concerned about trees being infested near their homes. Hallahan called for the town to develop resources to help guide residents through the steps for when they find the beetles on their property, although he didn’t want the town to bear the expenses of actually removing trees from private properties.
Southern pine beetles are an invasive species that arrived on the Island in the past few years and have become a concern for conservationists. The species favors pitch pine, and the females carve S-shaped tunnels to attract mates and lay eggs — a process that eventually kills infested trees. The beetles have been expanding their range northward with warming climates.
Hallahan was particularly concerned over increased fire risks, and damage to homes and power lines, from trees killed by beetle infestations.
“There is no way to control the Southern pine beetle,” Hallahan said. “They fly, bore, kill, fly, and they repeat.”
Board members stated that they’ll need to consider how to handle pitch pine on town properties, and where to get funding, potentially from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Antone Lima, parks commission chair, said the beetles have been in Oak Bluffs for “a couple of years now,” and have been dealt with in various parts of town with pitch pine, including Oak Bluffs water district lands, Sailing Camp, and Farm Neck. He also said rather than fires stemming from dead trees, he was concerned about more trees growing back in areas that had been cleared of vegetation because of infestations. Lima said pine seeds in the area that usually wouldn’t receive sunlight would “shoot up” with “phenomenal regeneration,” which he said could lead to a “ladder system” for flames to climb up to dense forest tops. These “crown fires,” like those that ravaged parts of the West Coast, are harder to contain than the ground fires that Vineyard firefighters handle, Lima said.
