Invasive insect leads to Old Orchard Beach public park having to cut down more than 500 trees
By Keenan Mills
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OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine (WMTW) — Due to an infestation of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, volunteers at Guild Park in Old Orchard Beach had to work toward cutting down more than 500 trees in the park.
The action was a part of the forest management plan, according to the Ocean Park Association Environment and Natural Resources Committee members.
The plan has the goal of making the area sustainable for the future by removing the impacted trees, most of which the committee says most were dead. The efforts opened the canopy in the area and allow the forest to regenerate itself more easily.
“I think even members of the committee, myself included, had to be kind of brought along that cutting down any tree was a good thing,” said committee member Janet Anderson. “And so I became convinced over time that for the long-term health of the park, this is sort of a necessary thing to do.”
According to the committee, the invasive insects are about the size of the ballpoint of a pen and their nests can be found in the spring, appearing like a white puff on tree branches.
“Each one of those white puffs has 100 woolly adelgids that come crawling out as larvae,” commented committee member Mark Lauritano. “And then they attach themselves to the base of each needle on the branch. And just suck the sap right out of the tree.”
Lauritano said that the goal of the Ocean Park Association as a whole is to make the public areas accessible not just for visitors now, but for generations to come.
The removal of the trees isn’t the only way the group is doing that. Logged in to a database and tagged with a specific number were over 3,000 trees in the 20-acre park that have a diameter of 10 inches or more.
Several trees also have an orange ribbon representing those trees as a candidate to receive a pesticide that battles adelgid. Along with the release of 500 beetles this year and last year that have the sole purpose of feeding on adelgid, the group is trying to prevent future tree removal.
“Ocean Park has been a thriving summer community and turning into more of a year-round community within Old Orchard Beach since the 1880s,” added Lauritano. “So, it’s been around a while, and we want to keep that and continue to make it sustainable for future generations.”
The group is hoping to even capitalize on the free space where tree removal equipment was placed in the park.
According to Anderson, a woodland garden could be coming to Guild Park. It would be the home to several native plants that will bring a variety of wildlife and add to the educational aspects of the space.
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