Winter, moths, beetles take toll on island pines
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Japanese pitch and black pine trees are turning brown and dying all over the island.

Pine trees across the island have turned brown, from the ground up.

While it is not the crisis that it sounds like, and the town is not launching an all-out save-the-pinetrees campaign, there is a good explanation for those wondering why so many black and Japanese pitch pines seem to be dying.

These two species of pine trees, along with the infamous scrub oak tree, dominate the open landscape of the island and push out rare and endangered grasses, flowers and shrubs on the island's sandplain grasslands. It is little wonder, then, that no one is really up in arms over their demise.

Black pine, according to Nantucket tree warden Dave Champoux, was originally planted on the island by Bassett Jones on his property in Wauwinet. Japanese pitch pines were first planted on Nantucket as a windbreak at the top of Bean Hill, just past Tom Nevers Road heading east, he said.

For these less than glamorous trees, Champoux said there are three causes of ongoing pine die-offs around the island.

"Winter damage is one," he said. "On the black pines, they are predominately affected by the Nantucket pine tip moth that affects their terminal growth."

The larvae of this insect feed on the new growth at the end of its branches, what Champoux called its candles.

"The other thing is the Japanese pitch pine and black pine are infected with turpentine beetles that feed at the base of the tree and clog up the tree's vascular system," he said.

The turpentine beetle's larvae girdle these pines about six to 12 inches up from the ground, burrowing into the trunk of the tree.

Champoux added that the Department of Public Works commits much of its tree money each year to treating the American elm trees in the downtown area for Dutch elm disease and does not currently spend any money eradicating the pine tree menace.

However, Champoux said he has the black pine trees on his property sprayed for Nantucket Tip Moths twice a year by Bartlett Tree Experts and that seems to help a great deal in keeping them alive.