Interagency cooperation drives timely control efforts, including removal of affected trees at military facilities
South Chungcheong Province has deployed a dedicated task force for pine wilt disease control in Boryeong, which was designated a special control zone on Sept. 29, carrying out intensive measures including the removal of infected trees and species conversion.
On Friday, about 20 officials from the province, Boryeong city and the Boryeong Forestry Cooperative gathered in Hyangcheon-ri, Cheongna-myeon, Boryeong, to inspect pine wilt disease control operations on the ground.
Boryeong is one of the province's most severely affected areas, classified as a "severe" zone for pine wilt disease damage.
Participants reviewed the progress of control efforts, used drones to check work conditions at species-conversion sites, and discussed on-site challenges and coordination tasks among agencies.
The province also made headway in closing control gaps at military facilities, where access restrictions and consent requirements had previously hampered timely operations, by securing cooperation from the relevant agencies.
Work at the site is now 80 percent complete, with key processes such as the felling of infected trees under way, as crews push to finish within the intensive control period.
"The most important thing in stopping the spread of pine wilt disease is swiftly and thoroughly removing infected trees during the intensive control period," said Ahn Gyu-won, head of the province's forest land management division. "We will do our utmost to manage operations on the ground so that control work is completed on time."
Ahn added that the province would "continuously close control gaps in areas where operations are difficult, such as military facilities, and concentrate our capabilities on the hardest-hit areas to do everything possible to halt the spread of pine wilt disease."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
