Unprecedented bark beetle infestation largely defeated after three years

Devastating bark beetle infestation in Czech forests has peaked and is receding, the Czech News Agency reported. The mass and unprecedented infestation first broke out in 2018. The situation has improved in Moravia and forestry workers in Vyočina are bringing it under control.

The last large battlefields against the bark beetle are in the Ústí nad Labem and Liberec regions, an official from the state agency that oversees the country’s forests, Lesy CR, said.

Lesy CR say the priority now is renewing land hit by the infestation. Until 2018 some 10,000 hectares of land was afforested annually; this year it should be 22,000 hectares.