Ulju-gun's pine tree nematode disease is serious..."I need cooperation and support."

[Anchor]
The damage from pine nematode disease is increasing in Ulsan, especially Ulju-gun.

We are responding by increasing the cost of control, but as the situation has hardly improved, the Korea Forest Service and Ulsan Metropolitan Government have agonized over countermeasures and requested government support.

I'm reporter Ra Kyung-hoon from Ulsan Central Broadcasting Station, JCN.

[Reporter]
The damage from pine nematode disease in Ulsan is increasing rapidly.

A total of 84,000 pine nematode trees in Ulsan have been damaged so far.

The amount of damage, which had been on the decline, began to increase again in 2021, and this year nearly doubled from last year.

Ulju-gun, in particular, accounts for more than half of the total damage.

This is a diagram of the damage caused by pine nematode disease across the country.

There are five 'extreme' areas of damage marked in red.

Ulju County is currently included in the most serious "extreme" area.

A situation in which a lot of control costs are being spent every year, but the damage does not decrease.

In response, Ulsan City examined the control plan with experts such as the Korea Forest Service and forest engineers.

Ulju County demanded active budget support from the government, saying that local financial resources alone are limited.

[Lee Soon-gul / Ulsan Ulju County Governor: Local resources are not enough to prepare for this disaster. However, the amount of support (of the government) is too small for our local expenses. It's not enough for us to prevent it.]

The Korea Forest Service said this is golden time to stop the spread of nematode disease and promised to strengthen its control capacity along with budget support.

[Jim Sang-seop / Director of Forest Service: We are planning to implement a macroscopic control strategy by converting pine trees to other species and other species suitable for the region, rather than repetitive control.]

In addition, if Ulsan City provides forecasting personnel, the Korea Forest Service will support forecasting technology and actively utilize air forecasting using forecasting control groups and drones.

Ulju-gun alone is expected to have 270,000 infected trees in the future.

Although we are focusing on control work every year, attention is being paid to how effective this measure will be in a situation where damage continues to increase.

I'm Ra Kyung-hoon from JCN News.


Video recording: Kim Chang-jong

Graphic: Reasonji