Forest Pests in Kentucky's Parks Survey: 2013 - 2016
Kentucky has a thriving parks system. The state has 52 state parks including 24 recreation state parks, 17 resort parks (more than any other state), and 11 historic state parks. In addition, approximately one million acres of land belong to national parks in Kentucky (statistics from www.kentuckytourism.com). In 2011, three national parks in Kentucky had over 1.2 million visitors (www.nps.gov). Many of these parks have campgrounds which are popular destinations for both in-state and out-of-state visitors. Campgrounds are high-risk areas in terms of the introduction of forest pests and state and national parks are high-risk areas in terms of points of potential establishment of exotic pests; therefore, we will perform a bundled survey focusing on Kentucky parks to protect Kentucky’s forests and preserve an important source of tourism revenue for the state.
Rosy Gypsy Moth
2013 was the first year of this survey and 22 state parks were included. We designed a survey that consisted of both a trapping component and a visual survey component. The trapping component of the survey was designed to detect eight moth pests that pose a risk to oak trees since 75% of Kentucky’s forestland, a total over 9.3 million acres, is an oak-hickory forest type (statistics from forestry.ky.gov). These eight pests are as follows: Summer Fruit Tortrix, Variegated Golden Tortrix, Light Brown Apple Moth, Rosy Moth, Egyptian Cottonworm, Oak Processionary Moth, False Codling Moth, and Green Oak Tortrix. The visual survey component involved looking for signs and symptoms of two pests of state concern, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and Asian Longhorned Beetle. Hemlock trees are common in forests in the eastern one-third of Kentucky and Hemlock Woolly Adelgid was discovered first discovered in Kentucky in 2006. Asian Longhorned Beetle has been found in southeastern Ohio relatively near the Kentucky border.
During the survey, surveyors looked for trees showing signs of Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) infestation. Surveyors did not see any trees that appeared to be infested with this pest, but did not county numbers of negative trees since they could not thoroughly examine the entire tree to say with certainty that it was free of ALB.
Green Oak Tortrix
2013
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Number of Parks Surveyed: 22
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Counties Surveyed: Barren, Carroll, Carter, Edmonson, Floyd, Grayson, Greenup, Jefferson, Johnson, Laurel, Lawrence, Madison, Nelson, Pendleton, Powell, Pulaski, Robertson, Spencer, Taylor, Washington, Whitley
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Number of Target Moth Pests Captured: 0
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Number of Trees positive for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: 159
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Counties Positive for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: Powell (21 trees), Magoffin (20 positive and new county record), Martin (118 positive and new county record)
2014
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Number of Parks Surveyed: 20
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Counties Surveyed: Bell, Boyle, Carroll, Carter, Floyd, Grayson, Greenup, Jefferson, Johnson, Laurel, Lawrence, Madison, McCreary, Nelson, Pulaski, Russell, Spencer, Washington
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Number of Target Moth Pests Captured: 0
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Number of Trees positive for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: 0
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Counties Surveyed for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: Carter (730 trees), Floyd (2 trees), Greenup (120 trees), Lawrence (14 trees)
2015
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Number of Parks Surveyed: 20
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Counties Surveyed: Bell, Boone, Carroll, Carter, Floyd, Greenup, Hopkins, Johnson, Laurel, Lawrence, McCreary, Nelson, Pendleton, Pulaski, Robertson, Spencer, Trigg, Washington
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Number of Target Moth Pests Captured: 0
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Number of Trees positive for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: 0
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Counties Surveyed for Hemlock Woolly Adelgid: Bell (17 trees), Laurel (29 trees), McCreary (25 trees)
2016
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Number of Parks Surveyed: 20
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Counties Surveyed: Boone, Carroll, Carter, Daviess, Edmonson, Floyd, Greenup, Johnson, Laurel, Lawrence, Madison, Muhlenberg, Nelson, Pendleton, Pulaski, Robertson, Washington, Whitley
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Number of Target Moth Pests Captured: 0
Oak Processionary Moth
Asian Longhorned Beetle
