DAEJEON — The Korea Forest Service and South Chungcheong Province have agreed to work together on an industrial-use approach to controlling pine wilt disease.
The two sides said on the 6th that they signed the agreement a day earlier at a project site in Taean County, South Chungcheong Province, and held a field discussion on making tiered use of trees damaged by the disease.
Under the industrial-use approach, infected pine trees are felled, treated to eliminate the pest and then channeled into uses ranked by value — sawn timber, boards and fuel — so that control efforts generate economic returns through the market rather than ending in disposal.
The two sides agreed to build an industrial-use control system for pine wilt disease in the South Chungcheong region, promote tiered use of damaged trees to maximize the value of forest resources, expand treatment methods that allow damaged trees to be used in log form, cooperate on wooden construction in the province's public buildings and on supplying damaged timber for such projects, and strengthen surveillance and monitoring when damaged trees are transported.
South Chungcheong is well suited to pioneering the model because the province and neighboring areas host both wood processors that make high-value timber products and power plants that consume wood chips.
At the field discussion that followed the signing, the province presented its control plan and demonstrated methods required for the approach, including mechanized felling, transport using box trucks fitted with netting, and large-scale fumigation.
The Korea Forest Service said it plans to establish a leading model for industrial-use control and expand it nationwide.
"Starting with South Chungcheong, we will expand industrial-use control across the country to preserve our precious forests and build a nation where people find happiness in the woods," Korea Forest Service Administrator Park Eun-sik said.
