The infestation of pine bark beetles is affecting forests all over the western United States and Canada. Our little forest island, the Black Hills, is filled with areas of dead trees and the infestation is far from over. The hills are a maze of private and government owned land. The State of South Dakota, the National Forest Service, the National Park Service and other agencies control parts of the land. There is a mosaic of privately held land scattered throughout the hills. The result is that the response to the beetle infestation is a bit inconsistent. In general, wilderness areas are left untouched, allowing the infestation to run its course. There are a lot of dead and dying trees in these areas and they are especially vulnerable to fires. While fire is a part of the natural cycles of the forest, the combination of previous fire-fighting efforts with particularly dense forestation results in high fuel loads. When fires get going, they can be really devastating.

The National Forest Service has instituted tree-cutting programs to remove bug-killed trees in parts of the land it manages, but funding has been short of a comprehensive program. The National Park Service has smaller amounts of land and has been able to remove a larger number of bug trees before the bugs fly each summer. The State of South Dakota has also instituted aggressive tree-cutting programs, but funds are limited.

In the midst of all of these programs and agencies, private landowners are proceeding with the best information they can find. Trained foresters are available to walk the land and mark the trees. While trees can be sprayed with insecticides to prevent infestation, once the beetles are in a tree, the tree is almost always killed. Given the cost and potential risks associated with pesticides, the plan followed by most landowners is to cut the trees as quickly as possible and then to cut the logs into chunks. Foresters recommend pieces of 18 inches or shorter. If the wood dries quickly enough the beetles will die before they reach the stage where they fly to infest other trees.

The sound of chainsaws rings through the hills as people work to try to slow the rate of infestation. It is hard work. The land has plenty of steep hills and chainsaws are heavy and dangerous.

The Woodchuck Society is a grassroots effort in our church about which I have blogged many times. We take donated firewood, split it and deliver it to partners on neighboring reservations for use as fuel to heat homes and churches. The project started very small and has grown to annual deliveries of about 50 cords of wood. We are currently working on developing a third distribution site because we are receiving more and more wood each year. Recent mild winters have resulted in a slight decrease in demand in some areas while the woodpile in the church yard continues to grow.

We also are helping our neighbors who have lots of firewood on their land and who want to remove as much as possible to decrease fuel loads and reduce fire danger. We have to be careful with our handling of the wood, especially long logs, because our church is located below a beautiful forested slope. We don’t want to make the mistake of introducing pine bark beetles to our neighborhood.

There is no risk of an infestation in some of the reservation communities we serve. With no pine trees, the beetles can’t do their work of destruction. So we have hauled long logs directly to our partners and our Eagle Butte partners are cutting and splitting wood on site.

The beautiful weather has allowed us a few days out in the hills to collect the wood. Yesterday was a great opportunity to haul a load of logs to the woodlot. We were collecting from the land of members of our congregation and they helped us load, so there were seven of us who loaded the church’s large trailer and two pickup trucks with wood. The terrain is steep and some of the logs were quite a ways from the trucks so a four-wheeler and a small trailer were used to haul loads to the big trailer and pickups. There were some places where we could roll the logs down the hill from were the trees were cut.

It is good work for a pastor whose everyday routine is a bit too sedentary. It is really good for me to get outside and do some physical work. Rolling logs down a hillside and loading them into the truck burns off a few calories, stretches the muscles and improves circulation. While there are plenty of wonderful places in this world, the setting for our work is a great place to be outdoors. The landowners chose their place because of its beauty. And they share that beauty generously with their guests.

So I don’t have much to report of my day after Thanksgiving except that it provided good work with good friends in a beautiful location. And that is enough. It is, in fact more than enough. To be able to work in the hills assumes that I have enough food and that I have a way of earning my food that gives me leisure time. That isn’t true for all of the people in our community, let alone the world. There were plenty of people who couldn’t afford to take a day off from work yesterday. They’d love to have time to volunteer, but the struggle to survive consumes almost all of their waking hours. It takes more than one full-time job per adult to sustain a family at minimum wage.

I can never forget that living in the beautiful location where we have our home is a luxury that not everyone has. The increasing urbanization of the world’s populations leaves the luxury of living in a place with lots of open space to a small number of us. We are blessed. And it is good for us to remember that from time to time.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.