Beetle is back: damage similar to 2019

It was a late summer swarming that caused another spruce bark beetle outbreak. An inventory in late October showed a 25-percent increase in the volume of damaged forest compared with late August, which is later than normal. Removing as many infested trees as possible before the spring swarming starts is now critical.

“We see increased damage across our entire forest operations area, but the greatest increase in damaged volumes compared with the last inventory is in areas that are already seriously affected,” said Henrik Holmberg, forest management and contractor developer at Södra.

“The change in damaged volumes between both of the autumn’s inventories is not due to new outbreaks, but the fact that the damage has now been easier to detect. We also expect to continue finding infested trees until spring next year.”

Forest owners will continue their forest protection efforts, making inventories of their forests and removing any damaged trees, to minimize the impact on the supply chain.