Regional Forestry Work Groups – A Step in the Right Direction
The Florida Urban Forestry Council’s (FUFC) 2026 Urban Forestry Institute (UFI) conference has come and gone. However, the theme “Resilience, Resistance, and Recovery” continues on!
Bay Area Regional Forestry
A recent Bay Area Regional Forestry meeting was joined by Jeffery Eickwort, the Florida Forest Service’s State Entomologist. Jeff provides statewide assistance and training when identifying, evaluating, and managing forest and shade tree insects. This work involves coordinating forest insect surveys, prevention, and suppression programs across Florida. This particular meeting was an excellent opportunity for the group to learn firsthand about what’s happening in the Bay Area and how to recognize early warning signs – especially after storm events.
BARF met at Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs. Fred Howard Park is 155 acres of park and beach located on the Gulf in Tarpon Springs. This park provides homes to wildlife, including eagles, gopher tortoises, and fox squirrels. Jeff shared his expertise on beetle infestations following hurricanes.
Hidden Damage From Hurricanes
In many cases, damage from hurricane winds is obvious and straightforward. Bent, broken, or uprooted trees are immediately recognizable. However, sometimes wind damage is not immediately apparent. When stems bend and twist but do not break during a hurricane, it can cause hidden damage to the internal wood structures, including the vessels in the wood that carry water up from the roots. It is also possible for a tree to be partially uprooted and then settle back into place, leaving it with broken roots that no longer conduct water or provide structural support effectively. This hidden damage can lead to the decline and death of trees for months or even years.
Water damage from hurricanes is primarily due to flooding from rainfall and/or storm surge. Tree roots that are submerged for an extended period can suffocate and lose their ability to take up water. Symptoms are very similar to those found during a drought. They may include wilting or loss of leaves, branch dieback, and/or death of the entire tree. Damage caused by prolonged water inundation can occur even when there is no standing water on the site. Saturated soil and/or an elevated water table can remain hidden for an extended period.
Physiological Drought
This phenomenon is known as “physiological drought.” Different tree species vary greatly in their ability to tolerate and survive these conditions. Along the coastline, flooding from storm surge can cause the same effects, but the salt in the seawater can cause additional long-term problems for tree species that are not well-adapted to high salinity in the soil and water. Another way that water from hurricanes can injure trees is “salt spray,” when droplets of seawater are blown inland by high winds, causing leaves or needles of salt-sensitive tree species to turn brown and fall off, especially on the side of the tree facing the coast. In most cases, the tree will sprout new leaves and recover with no long-term effects.
Beetle Infestations Following Hurricanes
Long after the hurricane or tropical storm, pine bark beetles, particularly Ips pine engraver beetles (Ips Pini) and black turpentine beetles (Dendroctonus terebrans), feed in the inner bark of pines that are stressed, declining, or recently dead. As a result, they are likely to be more abundant in the months and years following a hurricane. They are not likely to infest healthy trees, but can smell the odors given off by stressed trees even when they have no visible problems. Typical signs of attack are small clumps of resin on the bark (known as pitch tubes, where beetles tunnel in), reddish-brown boring dust, and rapid wilting of the needles.
Southern pine beetles (SPB) (Dendroctonus frontalis) are known to aggressively attack healthy trees during an outbreak, but SPB outbreaks are not likely to become more abundant following hurricanes and never occur in South Florida. In Florida, southern pine beetle activity has historically been limited to the northern half of the state, corresponding to the natural range of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). SPB has never been recorded south of a line extending approximately from Pasco County to Volusia County. Pine bark beetle infestations in South Florida involve Ips pine engraver beetles and/or black turpentine beetle. So, if you are noticing pine mortality after storms, look for your secondary pests. One of the steps toward Resilience, Resistance, and Recovery!
Municipal Roundtable
Guest speakers will be a welcome part of group meetings. Do you want to start a COOL regional municipal work group like BARF in your area? A FUFC Municipal Roundtable is a good place to start. Peer-to-peer seats at the table are reserved for municipal arborists, urban foresters, and the city teams who support them. It’s a place to share what works, compare notes, and leave each meeting with something you can actually use. For more information, visit https://fufc.org/municipal-roundtable/.
(Information for this article was sourced from the Florida Forest Service Leaflets 1, 2, 4, and 23. All leaflets were authored by Jeffery Eickwort, the Florida Forest Service’s State Entomologist. As a bonus, all these leaflets and more are available here:
www.fdacs.gov/Forest-Wildfire/Our-Forests/Forest-Health/Forest-Health-Publications)
