The Division of Forestry and Cooperative Extension will host a spruce bark beetle workshop Thursday.
The event is being offered because of increased spruce bark beetle activity on the Kenai Peninsula, Jessie Moan, statewide integrated pest management program technician for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, said.
She has been helping coordinate the workshops so people in affected areas can have access to information regarding their lands, and specifically trees. The workshop was also offered in Houston and Palmer last month.
An estimated 52,000 acres of the Kenai Peninsula has been damaged this year, according to the Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service.
Agency representatives will be at the event to discuss spruce beetle activity, focusing on what landowners can do to protect their trees.
“We’ll be covering everything from basic biology and life cycles of a spruce bark beetle, status of the current outbreak, what to do when your trees are already affected and more,” said Jason Moan, who is Division of Forestry’s forest health program coordinator. He said the event will be an all-encompassing effort to teach people about how landowners can take care of their trees.
The event is 6-8 p.m. at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building, 40610 Kalifornsky Beach Road.
