Chuncheon City Launches All-Out Effort to Prevent the Spread of Pine Wilt Disease

Promoting Pine Forest Species Conversion
Improved Consent and Procedures for Forest Landowners
Strengthening Management of High-Risk Zones and Removing Dead Trees to Block Spread
Expanding Citizen-Focused Pest Control with Preventive Injections and Hazardous Tree Removal

Chuncheon City in Gangwon Province (Mayor Yuk Donghan) is making every effort to implement comprehensive control measures to prevent pine wilt disease and block its spread.

Chuncheon City is making every effort to implement comprehensive control measures to prevent pine wilt disease and block its spread. Photo by Chuncheon City

Pine wilt disease is a deadly forest pest for which there is no cure, and once infected, trees have a 100% mortality rate.

To fundamentally prevent its spread, Chuncheon City is promoting the "Pine Forest Species Conversion Project," which involves replacing existing pine trees with other species.

The city provides before-and-after comparison photos to forest landowners to obtain their consent for participation, has extended the validity period of control agreements from one year to three years, and introduced QR code responses to simplify the procedures. In addition, since August, the city has held four briefing sessions for timber producers to strengthen public-private cooperation.

To prevent the disease from spreading to neighboring areas, the city plans to first designate and manage high-risk zones (frontline areas) and prioritize the removal of dead trees within these zones to block the spread as much as possible.

Furthermore, the city will expand support for preventive injections for pine trees in residential areas and prioritize the removal of dead or hazardous trees in locations where safety accidents are a concern, such as around homes, to provide pest control services that citizens can directly experience.

In the first half of next year, the city plans to administer combination tree injections to pine forests with high conservation value, aiming for longer-lasting preventive effects compared to previous methods.

A city official stated, "Pine wilt disease is a forest pest that is difficult to recover from once it spreads, and it is hard to prevent its spread without the cooperation of citizens and forest landowners. We will enhance citizen engagement and interest through pest control services that people can directly experience."

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