Few resources for homeowners to remove risky, beetle-damaged pine trees

Discolored trees show the damage caused by an infestation of southern pine beetles spot in Mississippi. (Ricky Cox and Wade Hosey/U.S. Forest Service)

State lawmakers want Gov. Jeff Landry to declare an emergency to address millions of dead and dying pines that insects have infested and now pose a risk to people, property, power lines and roads.

But officials say not much help is available to homeowners who want to remove trees that are certain to fall down and cause damage.

State Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, convened an emergency meeting Tuesday of a House Agriculture subcommittee on the safety problems pine beetles have created. The April 10 death of a woman in Rapides Parish was attributed to a beetle-damaged tree that came down in severe weather.

Last year’s extended drought caused the tree damage that set the table for the voracious pine beetles. Although experts said the insects themselves have likely maxed out their spread, their impact continues to threaten logging operations, public rights of way and private properties.

More than 12 million trees are considered at risk, according to state and federal forestry officials, with most of them concentrated in Central Louisiana. Johnson asked various state agency representatives at Tuesday’s hearing what could be done to reduce the danger the stricken trees pose.

Commercial loggers can fell infested trees and isolate damaged areas to limit beetles from spreading. This is an option the timber industry prefers over costly insecticides, said State Forester Wade Dubeau.

Removing trees is often cost-prohibitive for homeowners, with licensed arborists required to handle the job charging a minimum $1,500 per tree, forestry officials said. Thousands more could be added to the price if heavy equipment is needed.

Homeowners can’t turn to their insurance carriers for help because property policies don’t cover preventative measures. Damage to homes from fallen trees is only covered if it occurs under certain weather conditions, and only then if the homeowner wasn’t aware of the tree’s vulnerability beforehand, said Adam Patrick with the Louisiana Department of Insurance.

For the subcommittee’s next meeting in August, Johnson asked Patrick to compile information on insurance claims paid out in Louisiana for tree damage. The lawmaker said the data could help convince insurance companies that helping policyholders take down trees might be more cost-efficient than paying out damage claims later.

Johnson said an 87-year-old resident in his district reached out for his help with four pine trees that threaten her home. The cost of removal was out of her reach, and the representative said he was able to connect the woman with an arborist willing to handle the job for free. It’s an option he doesn’t expect to be widely available, given the magnitude of the beetle infestation.

Dubea told the subcommittee Louisiana’s pine beetle problem is as bad as he can recall since the late 1980s, though he called that instance a very “rural” situation that didn’t affect residents to the extent the current infestation has. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry has attempted to link homeowners with charitable organizations and churches who can help cover the cost of tree removal, but demand for such services outweighs the resources available, Dubea said.

Jacques Thibodeaux, director of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, told lawmakers it’s highly unlikely the federal government would respond to a state emergency declaration for pine beetles at the same scale it does for natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes.

One avenue he suggested was following the path crawfish farmers laid after last year’s drought, which yielded an emergency declaration earlier this year.  It led to the Small Business Administration opening a temporary office in Acadiana to help affected businesses access low-interest loans.

Matthew Cross with the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives said a state declaration could also open doors for power providers to obtain assistance with clearing rights of way where trees threaten transmission lines, although he noted the help would not be made available to individual customers.

The pine beetle subcommittee will compile a report that could lead to legislative proposals and policy recommendations to the Landry administration. Taylor Barras, the governor’s commissioner of administration, said his staff would continue to pore through existing state funds to see if any resources were available to help prevent damage from falling pine trees.

Johnson stressed that it’s not a matter of if but when compromised trees will come down suddenly. Another natural disaster could compound the risk, he added.

“It’s kind of a silent danger … It’s ultimately going to happen,” Johnson said.

DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST

The post Few resources for homeowners to remove risky, beetle-damaged pine trees appeared first on Louisiana Illuminator .