Chungnam Strengthens Monitoring and Control to Minimize Forest Pest Damage

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province is strengthening surveillance and control activities to prevent damage caused by forest pests and diseases.

The province announced on the 2nd that it will establish and operate a 'Forest Pest and Disease Surveillance and Control Headquarters' in the provincial government and city/counties until the end of August.

The headquarters will be set up in 17 locations, including the provincial government office, the Provincial Forest Resources Research Institute, and 15 city/counties, to protect forest resources from the rapidly increasing forest pests and diseases due to climate change.

Going forward, the headquarters plans to focus administrative efforts on controlling forest pests and diseases by investing 13.2 billion KRW in control budgets.

First, the province will deploy 51 surveillance and control personnel to city/counties and business offices to strengthen surveillance activities in forests and parks near residential areas.

Additionally, it will concentrate on timely control of forest pests and diseases such as pine wilt disease surveillance, reporting and receiving suspected infected trees, managing export bans, and controlling pine needle gall midges.

In particular, the headquarters will support aerial control for chestnut tree farms facing difficulties in control work due to aging, and provide tree pest and disease diagnostic services through public tree hospitals operated by the Provincial Forest Resources Research Institute and private tree hospitals commissioned by city/counties.

Lee Sang-chun, head of the Forest Resources Division of the province, said, “We will focus on operating the headquarters to protect forest resources and strengthen proactive surveillance and control activities to prevent trees around residential areas such as parks and roads from being exposed to forest pests and diseases.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.