Identification 
Southern pine beetles are short-legged, about 1/8 inch long, and dark reddish-brown to black in color.  They have a notched head and a rounded rear.  The larvae are crescent-shaped and whitish, with an amber head.  When fully developed the larvae are about the same length as the adults.  Pupae are the same size and white in color.  Eggs are pearly-white and are found in notches along the sides of the adult egg galleries found in the inner bark of attacked trees. 

Damage 
Adult beetles bore through the outer bark into the inner bark, or cambium (the living tissue that feeds the tree).  At each bore hole the tree usually exudes a resin, which forms a pitch tube.  Once inside, the beetles construct winding s-shaped galleries that cross one another and eventually girdle the tree.  After eggs hatch, the larvae add to these galleries.  Spread of blue-stain fungi introduced by the beetles hastens the death of the tree.  The first sign of tree mortality from southern pine beetles is discoloration of the foliage.  Needles become yellowish, change to red and then brown.  To identify damage from southern pine beetles look for the s-shaped galleries in the cambium underneath the bark. A birds-eye-view of southern pine beetle damage reveals a target-like spot, with dead trees in the center appearing red and trees attacked more recently appearing more yellow to green toward the edges. 

Control 
Cyclic outbreaks of southern pine beetle are brought under control by diseases, predators, parasites, and weather.  Landowners can use integrated pest management techniques to suppress outbreaks if necessary.  The most recommended practice is rapid removal of infested trees, utilization of merchantable wood, and burning of infested materials.  Using infested wood to build structures near other pine stands is a bad idea because these materials can introduce the beetles into those stands. 

Beware of Other Insects 
Bear in mind that the southern pine beetle is not the only insect that can damage pine stands.  Other insects, such as the ips engraver beetle, black turpentine beetle, ambrosia beetle, and southern pine sawyer are also common invaders of southern pines.  The ips engraver is the second most common damaging insect for southern pines.  Signs of attack by ips engravers are reddish-brown boring dust in bark crevices or dime-size, reddish-brown pitch tubes on bark surfaces.  Y- or H-shaped galleries appear beneath the bark with short galleries running perpendicular to them.  Blue-stain fungi are also introduced by ips engravers and will expedite tree mortality. 

Black turpentine beetle damage will be found low on the tree as they attack fresh stumps or the lower trunk of living pines, usually about 2 feet from the ground.  Look for half-dollar-sized, white to reddish-brown pitch tubes in bark crevices on the lower tree bole.  Ambrosia beetles, which attack both pines and hardwoods, leave behind a pile of fine white dust below the entrance holes or at the base of the tree.  Southern pine sawyers generally attack dead pines or logs held in storage. 

For more information on insects and diseases affecting southern pines, visit the USDA Forest Service's Forest Health Protection web site at http://fhpr8.srs.fs.fed.us/

Increased CO2 may be a good thing for loblolly pines, but they are only a small part of the picture.  Increased global temperatures, if realized, may alter the occurrence of other species and ecosystems.  The latest issue of the Society of American Foresters' Forestry Source newsletter (vol. 5, no. 8) reported a University of Alaska study on the effects of rising temperatures on the growth of white spruce in the Alaskan interior.  Researchers there have found that growth of white spruce has responded negatively to higher temperatures.  A warming trend in the Alaskan interior has resulted in more arid conditions, inhibiting growth and CO2 intake by the species.  Drought-stressed trees are more susceptible to fungal invasions, and increasing numbers of dead trees in the region may add fuel for potential forest fires.  Likewise, researchers at Columbia University's Biosphere 2 in Arizona found that increases in ocean water temperature could slowly dissolve coral reefs, and low-lying coastal regions could be underwater if predictions of sea level rise are realized. 

Forests as a whole will almost surely change in the future, as they have in response to past climate changes.  Many scientists expect changes in competitive dynamics between species and a change in overall species composition as a result of predicted CO2 levels.  Forests will likely be dominated by those species that can efficiently use CO2 and adapt to climate change at the expense of others.  Others argue that these predictions will never come true because they believe that forests will expand and absorb excess atmospheric CO2.

Most Florida black bears live in heavily forested landscapes.  Pine flatwoods, sandhill scrub, and dense ti-ti swamps seem to be preferred for an optimum mixture of good food and cover resources.  The typical diet of a Florida black bear includes a combination of plant and animal material.  Common foods include acorns, cabbage palm, gallberries, palmetto berries, blackberries, grubs, termites, and beetles.  Bears will also eat armadillos, wild pigs, deer, and on rare occasion, livestock. 

Home range size can vary greatly in black bears, but averages about 70 square miles (44,800 acres) for adult males and 10 square miles (6,400 acres) for adult females.  These ranges may be defended seasonally for limited resources from other bears, but range overlap is normal, particularly between males and females.  The larger range size of males is due to the need to associate with as many females as possible during the breeding season. 

Florida black bears once roamed the entire state, as well as south Alabama and south Georgia. Now they are more or less restricted to five sub-populations across the state.  These sub-populations are generally associated with Eglin Air Force Base in the western panhandle, Apalachicola National Forest in the eastern panhandle, Osceola National Forest along the Georgia state line, Ocala National Forest in north-central Florida, and Big Cypress National Preserve in the southwestern portion of the state. 

To qualify for this emergency tree planting assistance, applicants must be private, non-industrial forest landowners with less than 5,000 acres of total US forestland ownership, and have at least five (5) acres of damaged timberland that they want to reforest.  In addition, landowners can only receive cost-share reimbursement up to $10,000 per federal fiscal year.  The assistance includes cost sharing for site preparation and tree planting. 

The cost-share will cover up to 65% of the cost to re-establish a forest stand.  Eligible landowners are encouraged to investigate this new opportunity to receive assistance for replanting damaged timberland.  The following is a summary of the Emergency FIP guidelines: 

• Disaster damages must have occurred between the dates of January 1, 1998 through December 31, 2000. 

• Disasters covered include wildfire, drought, flood, and related insect damage (southern pine beetle). 

• Landowners owning more than 1,000 acres must receive a waiver from the Division of Forestry Director.  County foresters can initiate the waiver process. 

• The Program will pay up to 65% of site preparation and planting costs if they do not exceed average statewide costs for each practice. 

• County foresters have technical responsibility for the program and determine if damages are disaster related and what site preparation is required. 

The Division of Forestry and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) have established a continuous sign-up to help facilitate the application process.  Applications for Emergency FIP are available at your local NRCS office or contact your county forester.

Timber prices are initially dependent on what mills are willing to pay for wood delivered to their woodyards. Those prices are, in turn, dependent on the national and international markets for their finished products (lumber, plywood, poles, paper or pulp).  Demands for those products, such as new housing starts in the U.S., are cyclical, and one product (lumber, for example) may be high in demand (and therefore in mill prices) at the same time that another product (say, paper) is facing stiff international competition and prices are low. Delivered prices at the mill are also dependent on the particular production costs at that mill. Thus, pulpwood sold to two mills, side-by-side, may be valued differently because of different mill designs and market outlets. 

In addition to variations in woodyard prices, each possible buyer of your timber has their own unique set of variables to deal with in terms of: the particular equipment they own or can lease, their debt and capital structure, mills to which they haul the timber, and other sales they are currently working. So, their operating costs for your particular sale will rarely be the same. 

With these two major factors, delivered prices at the mill and harvesting costs, timber buyers compute what they can afford to pay a landowner for their timber sale. It is no wonder that landowners will often (if not all the time) see a fairly large range in prices bid or offered for their timber. And it is almost a guarantee that the landowner will never see a buyer offer a price that exactly matches the average price that was recorded in a timber price report for a previous three-month period for a large part of Florida. 

Where is this leading?  We have regularly reported in this newsletter a brief summary of the most recent Timber Mart-South (TMS) timber prices for northern Florida and have provided a more detailed summary to county extension offices. Unfortunately, those prices are too often construed as what a landowner should expect if they try to sell their timber today, which is usually several months beyond the three-month period included in the averages. In reality, current prices relative to any TMS report are almost always going to be higher or lower than the report. Rarely, if ever, will they be the same. Thus, our report in this newsletter will cover the range (low-high) of values reported in the most recent TMS report, which covers the period from April to June this year. We still offer no assurance that prices for a particular sale today will even fall within that range.  As in past issues, we reiterate that your best source of information on current stumpage prices will be timber buyers and forestry consultants in your area who are actively in the timber market. You may want to check and see if any of them use email lists to inform interested landowners when prices start rising (or going the other way). 

If we have created more questions than we have answered, send them to us and we will return to this issue in the next newsletter. 

The Report 
Stumpage price ranges reported across Florida in the 2nd quarter 2000 Timber-Mart South report were: $14-$36/cord for pine pulpwood, $60-$86/cord for pine C-N-S, $84-$138/cord for pine sawtimber, and $101-$125/cord for pine plylogs.  Prices were generally down for all four products compared to 1st quarter prices.  Average hardwood pulpwood prices ranged from $6-$25/cord, which was up slightly from the previous quarter.  A more complete summary of 2nd quarter stumpage prices is available at your County Extension Office. 

Long-term Trends 
Pine pulpwood markets have nearly disappeared in parts of the southeast due to a continuing flood of wood. Persisting dry weather, CRP thinnings, and increased quantities of salvaged timber in some areas have translated into mills needing very little pulpwood.  Both chip-n-saw and sawtimber have shown definite upward trends in average price over the same period.  According to F&W Newsletter No. 65 (Spring 2000), the demand for new home construction is the principal driver of demand for, and price of, sawtimber.  New housing starts continued an upward trend in the first quarter despite increased interest rates, but the decrease in sawtimber prices in the second quarter may reflect that change.  Most forecasters predict that construction markets will remain strong in the second quarter but, as predicted, the pace has slowed a bit.  Locally, persisting dry weather maintained access to many harvest sites and recent southern pine beetle outbreaks are adding yet more pulpwood to the already swelling piles.  We can probably expect pulpwood prices in north Florida to remain low for some time.