Mountain Pine Beetle - Resource Assessment and Action Plan

A landscape-level mountain pine beetle (MPB) epidemic is occurring in the central Black Hills of South Dakota. The most active area of MPB population growth and highest concentration of tree mortality is in close proximity to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Tree mortality has reached nearly 100% in much of the affected area, and infestation has recently been observed within the Memorial.

On Tuesday February 23, 2010, a National Park Service Rapid Resource Assessment Team (RRAT) arrived at the Memorial to develop an action plan to evaluate the potential impacts of mountain pine beetle infestation on the ponderosa pine forests of the Memorial. The draft plan is complete, and is available for public review.

Document Content:

Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan   (5.7 MB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of Acrobat Reader from Adobe Systems.