Louisiana faces rising safety concerns due to beetle infestations
BATON ROUGE, La. (KALB) - Louisiana’s Legislative House convened its emergency beetle subcommittee on July 9 to discuss resolving an ongoing environmental crisis reportedly threatening Louisiana’s citizens and greater timber industry.
The committee held discussions on various topics throughout its hearing, ranging from insurance costs, overall costs to amend the ongoing crisis through state methods, the effects bark beetle infestations have on state industries and the possible safety issues that can arise from dead or strained trees.
According to the USDA’s Climate Change Resource Center, bark beetles that infest and reproduce in trees are capable of causing tree death en masse, with the risk of tree death increasing during strenuous weather conditions such as droughts.
On April 10, the Louisiana Department of Health reported a 60-year-old woman from Pineville died after a tree and a powerline fell on her home. According to State Representative Mike Johnson, the fallen tree was infested with bark beetles.
A common statement echoed through several testimonies during the subcommittee hearing suggested Louisiana should take an aggressive approach to addressing the statewide issue.
“It’s really hard to manage these beetles. So really as other folks have said, anything we can do to be proactive and really make the trees as vigorous as possible as a barrier to these problems”
The statement was further supported by State Rep. Mike Johnson and State Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis, claiming that tree death can cause considerable safety and infrastructural concerns.
“We know those trees fall. Knocking out power does have a significant health and safety concern for our people, and those are just some of the places I’ve been looking at. In the Commission, we can be more aggressive to really make this crisis known and be proactive in our fight.”
“See that’s the thing, it’s not just ‘hey, I lost a tree,’ it’s ‘I lost a tree, and I’m afraid to sleep in this bedroom because it’s within distance to where that tree can fall.’”
Some recommendations suggest supporting local volunteer groups that target cutting down trees affected by bark beetles. Another suggestion called for Louisiana’s Governor Jeff Landry to declare a state of emergency to allow the state to possibly claim state funds from federal agencies, such as FEMA.
The subcommittee did not reach a conclusive solution to the issue and is scheduled to reconvene in August.
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