Published: August 21, 2007 10:17 pm      

Moth has defoliated 77,000 acres this year

CHARLESTON, WV — Ever since its introduction in New England more than a century ago for silk production, the gypsy moth has come a long way, and West Virginia officials are desperately trying to end its murderous advances in forests.

This year alone, the Forest Management Review Commission learned Tuesday, the ravenous pest has eaten up 77,000 acres of trees, largely in the eastern part of the state.

Clark Haynes, assistant director of forest health programs for the Division of Forestry, said the moth is among 50,000 species that have arrived in North America in the past four centuries.

“Only a very few became a serious problem,” he said.

The gypsy moth was introduced in 1869 in Massachusetts as a means of promoting silk production, and when a severe storm struck, the inspect spread throughout the country.

Moths attack the foliage of a tree, largely the white oak, “and that’s what stresses the tree and may end up killing it,” Haynes told the interims panel.

Haynes was unable to tell commission co-chairman, Sen. Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, what the loss in dollars has been in West Virginia, but the Senate finance chairman said it obviously would be in the millions.

A map displayed by Haynes showed the western part of the state is a slow-to-spread region. At one time, before a federal program was inaugurated, the moth was advancing at a clip of 20 miles per year, but since the effort began, that pace has been cut in half, Haynes said.

“It hit my county pretty heavy,” Delegate Gerald Crosier, D-Monroe, the other co-chairman, told fellow panelists.

This year, so far, the moth has defoliated 8,571 acres in Greenbrier, 11,040 in Monroe and 401 in Pocahontas. The hardest hit county has been Mineral, where 14,827 acres have been defoliated.

Haynes said a program is under way to help landowners battle the moth, but for now, the enrollment is difficult and the costs at stake are difficult to gauge, since Congress hasn’t decided yet on its new budget.

Efforts have been made to enlist support among the state’s delegation, particularly with Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., since he owns property in an affected area, Haynes said.

“We reminded him of that,” Haynes said.

Helmick said the inclusion of Greenbrier State Forest in an affected area means the state has some obligation to join the effort to curb the moth’s spread.

“We’re going to have to come up with something here,” he said.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com