The Swedish Forest Agency is hoping for more rain to help fight the spread of the spruce bark beetle infestation.
District forest officer Jan Torsten told TTJ that the forest industry was “struggling” against the beetle problem, with continuing dry conditions hampering trees’ ability to withstand attack.
An estimated 1-3 million m³ of living, standing timber is expected to be affected by the beetle this year – making the problem the number one issue for the wood industry.
“May and June was very dry and the trees are having problems defending themselves against attack,” said Mr Torsten.
“We are struggling against it but we hope if we get more rain we think we can work it through. But if we have this type of [dry] weather for the rest of the year it will not be very good at all.”
Good rainfall can ensure high sap flow rates in trees, which effectively floods out attack by beetles.
Mr Torsten said adult beetles woke from hibernation at the beginning of May and now the agency was waiting for the new generation to emerge before conducting observation flights to gauge the extent of the problem.
“We may have to wait another month before we can see all the dead trees.”
The beetle infestation gathered pace after the 2005 and 2007 storms, when large quantitites of trees were blown over.
