(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a series of articles on the continuing spread of pine wilt disease.)

Great Bend got a pat on the back when a state official met with the county this week.
The work that the city has done to respond to the arrival of a serious tree disease has been a good example of how the disease can be contained.
Unfortunately, it will only be slowed, because there is no cure, and introduced pine trees across the state are succumbing to pine wilt disease, District Forester Jim Strine, Hays, told the Barton County Commission this week.
Infected trees can be chipped, burned or buried and the city’s effort to control the spread in the city limits has been commendable, Strine said.
Speaking of burning, Strine said the wood from an affected pine tree can be burned as firewood — provided that it is ALL burned before May 1.
It is after that when the beetles that spread the disease head out, in search of fresh trees to infect, so it would be devastating to keep any affected wood over from one season to another.
And another local resource Strine stressed is the Barton County Extension Office, which is at the lead of the control effort.
Anyone in the county with questions can get more information from the Extension Office and it keeps in touch with the state forester and can make arrangements for him to check trees when he’s in town.
The disease has been moving through Kansas from the east, Strine reported. “Great Bend is just about on the westward movement of it.”
According to information from the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the disease is devastating to the introduced species.
“Symptoms of pine wilt begin to occur in mid summer and continue into early winter in Kansas.
“During feeding by the adult pine sawyer (a type of beetle) after emergence in late April and May, the nematodes leave the respiratory system of the beetle and enter the wound tissue.
“There the nematodes transform into adults and invade the sapwood primarily feeding on resin canals.
“The nematodes reproduce rapidly with each generation taking only five to six days to complete.
“In four to six weeks following feeding, the nematode is systemic through the tree and symptoms begin to develop.”
The affects of this disease are easy to spot, according to the information from the agriculture department.
“At first the infected tree begins to wilt and needles turn a dull green.
“If conditions are hot and dry, the tree rapidly dies with needles turning brown and no resin flow. Some trees die slowly up to three months of infection if conditions are not stressful. Pine sawyers continue to emerge from infected wood through the summer months resulting in new infection of nearby trees over the summer and into the fall.
“Overall, symptoms include flagging of branches, wilting of needles, absence of resin in branches, and rapid death of the tree.”
Pine species that are at risk, commonly found in Kansas, include the Scots, Austrian, Japanese Black, white pine, and loblolly pines. “Scots and Japanese Black pines are considered highly susceptible to the nematode,” according to the department of agriculture.
In the most recent community tree inventory for Great Bend, it was noted that there are some 2,100 pines in Great Bend and 95 percent of them are susceptible to pine wilt, Strine noted.
Steps to address the disease include early detection, testing, and destruction of the diseased trees. The Great Bend management plan calls for them to be burned or buried, but Strine said they can also be chipped, if it is done in a time of the year when the insects would die off.