The Georgia Forestry Commission is reaching out to landowners to participate in a cost-share program that will help them combat the destructive southern pine beetle.

Researchers at Northern Arizona University may have found a weapon against the bark beetles: digitally altered recordings of their own calls. The sounds caused the bugs make to stop mating or burrowing, and most importantly, stop chewing away at the pine trees.

The Wall Street Journal went to West Virginia to investigate the environmental and economic impact of damaging exotic bugs like the hemlock wooly adelgid that enter the United States in cargo from overseas. WV State Forester Randy Dye is interviewed in a video accompanying the article.

State and federal agencies have come together to form the National Firewood Task Force (NFTF), which will collect stakeholder ideas regarding the best comprehensive strategy for addressing firewood as a pest pathway and develop recommendations on next steps. The NFTF will focus its work on three primary areas of action: regulatory, voluntary and outreach. The Task Force includes members from the APHIS, the Forest Service, National Park Service, each National Plant Board region and each NASF regional organization. Submit comments or questions to firewood@aphis.usda.gov.

State Forester Bob Harrington and Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer plan to bring the gravity of the state's pine beetle epidemic before the Western Governor's Association to "help craft a regional response," according to Schweitzer. Getting more support from USDA and Interior for prescriptive logging and increasing pressure on Congress to take action on modernizing the country's energy policy are among the goals.