Tree killing beetle may cause more wildfires, Long Island officials warn

They’re not out of the woods yet.Long Island’s vulnerable pine barrens, recently ravaged by wildfires last March, are facing another threat in the form of an invasive species that could spell another incendiary disaster, officials warn.The southern pine beetle, which migrated to the eastern end of Suffolk County a decade ago, is ravaging the local ecosystem by drying out trees and making them susceptible to fire weather.“This is a serious, serious problem,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine told The Post.“They’ve eaten through hundreds, if not thousands of acres of pine trees…these trees die, they look terrible, they’re not coming back to life, and then they provide fodder for fires,” he added.The beetle penetrates the tree bark, causing its sap to stop flowing.

From there, green pine needles turn orange, and the tree becomes dead wood.Romaine said a dozen trees a day are falling victim to the insect, explaining that the end of the South Fork has also taken a ferocious beating from the tree killer.“You drive out to Montauk, you look at Amagansett, it’s like ‘oh my God, what happened here?'” Romaine said of the once scenic Montauk Highway leading toward Hither Hills State Park.“You also see it in Manorville and Calverton, Yaphank, and Upton, around Brookhaven National Lab.It’s like a little army that’s moving very slowly but deliberately to eat their way through.”Suffolk’s Commissioner of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services, Rudy Sunderman, explained that, along with fire risk — it has caused brush fires in the past — there are other hazards associated with the troublesome critter.“The pine beetle issue does cause falling trees, leaning trees,” he said.“We’ve been working on that, clearing trails of dangerous trees…So we’re currently working on methods to mitigate these problems.”The telltale sign of its presence is small, roundish holes in a tree’s bark, according to Sunderman.“It’s kind of weird,” he ...