You may have read recently that a tree planted to honor former Beatle George Harrison was killed, ironically, by an infestation of beetles mountain pine beetles. The evergreen tree had been planted in Los Angeles, California, and its loss is symbolic of the impact that pine beetles have had throughout the western United States.

Here in South Dakota, our efforts to beat the beetles began in earnest in August 2011 when I launched the Black Hills Forest Initiative. This multi-faceted plan sought to leverage state, federal and private resources to fight the pine beetle epidemic.

With support from the Legislature, I pledged $4 million over three years to provide a comprehensive effort to protect Custer State Park; surveying and marking assistance to private landowners; and a cost-share program for tree removal.

Since 2011, in Custer State Park, 166,308 trees have been marked and treated. Our goal has been to treat all beetle-infested trees in the park and those efforts have paid off, with the number of infested trees dropping from more than 100,000 in 2012 to just over 30,000 last year.

In the past three years, crews have also surveyed 3,848 private properties and marked 363,982 infested trees on 186,695 acres. More than 76 percent of those trees were treated through our cost-share program, which provided $1.8 million in assistance to private landowners. In total, landowners spent more than $2.8 million in cash and in-kind contributions to treat trees on private property.

Our outreach activities have been successful as well. Since we launched http://www.beatthebeetles.com, more than 63,000 people have visited the website. Over 1,500 people have attended one of our many landowner education workshops.

In 2012, these efforts earned an Innovations Award from the Council for State Governments for our programs creativity, effectiveness, newness, transferability and significance.

Mountain pine beetles are native to the Black Hills and will continue to impact our forests. While the epidemic is slowing, it has not ended and neither will our efforts. Last March, the legislature appropriated still another $1,950,000 to continue the fight. As George Harrison noted in a 1969 interview, For the forests to be green, each tree must be green." Were going to continue working to keep the Black Hills green.

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Our efforts to beat the beetles

By Jim Donovan

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) Trees can be a great asset to your property, adding beauty and shade, but only if theyre in good health.

In this weeks Angies List report, Jim Donovan has information you need if your tree is on its last limb.

Several trees on Troy Carpenters property were being destroyed by beetles.

You start noticing when the canopy thins out and eventually they dont have any leaves, so we thought we could treat about half of them that seemed to have somewhat healthy canopies, said Carpenter.

But treatments didnt work, so the trees needed to come down. Because once its obvious your tree is unhealthy, you need to take steps to protect yourself.

Proper tree maintenance is important from a liability standpoint for homeowners. You may not realize, but if you have a tree that falls and damages someone elses property, you are going to be responsible. So you want to take care of them when you see the first need, said Angies List founder, Angie Hicks.

Theres anything from defoliation to partial or complete defoliation of the tree to discoloration of the foliage to disfiguration of the leaves; sometimes leaves are curled that could be signs of a certain diseases or potential other injuries, said tree service company owner, Rick Carter.

When its time to remove a tree, several factors can affect the costs.

A lot of tree removal companies will charge by the foot of a tree. For example, if $15 a foot, a 40 foot tree would cost $600 to remove. Keep in mind that price doesnt always include taking the stump out so be sure to ask about that in particular if thats important to you, said Hicks.

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Angies List: Removing Trees From Your Property

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This large bur oak is being protected by developers as they are building new houses and apartments near Harrodsburg Road and Military Pike. The tree is thought to be more than 300 years old. HERALD-LEADER|BuyPhoto

A towering bur oak, more than 300 years old, is dominating the eastern skyline just off Harrodsburg Road at Military Pike in Lexington, now that crews have removed undergrowth that hid much of it.

"I gasped the first time I saw it after the brush was cleared off," said tree physiologist Tom Kimmerer, who wrote a protection plan for the tree. "It's absolutely stunning, way taller than anything else around here."

Kimmerer added that he thinks the bur oak could be almost 500 years old, not the 300-odd years often estimated.

The venerable tree has been at the center of preservation disputes several times over the past several years.

The most recent one was last year, when some Lexington residents tried to block a Ball Homes plan for apartments and single-family homes off Harrodsburg Road because they feared the old tree would suffer. Ball Homes insisted that it would make sure the tree was protected, and the Urban County Council ultimately approved its development plan.

Now, the company is getting started on development. It also is moving ahead with plans to protect the tree, which Kimmerer was commissioned to develop.

Kimmerer said the first steps included having Big Beaver Tree Co. remove the brush and vines that had grown up around the foot of the tree. Some old, dead branches also were removed from the bur oak itself, he said.

"The tree now has been fenced off very carefully, and no construction equipment will be allowed inside the fence," Kimmerer said last week. "Ball Homes is being careful to make sure all the contractors know they may not violate the fence."

The next step will be a thick layer of paper, covered by mulch, to kill and keep down weeds in a three-quarter-acre area around the trunk of the huge tree.

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Harrodsburg Road developers try to preserve massive bur oak, which may be 500 years old

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