Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

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.

Read more:
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.

Follow this link:
Angies List: Removing Trees From Your Property

Sprinkler System Cleanup BALDWINSVILLE NY 13027 Service Team
Frozen Pipes, Fire Restoration, Hurricane Cleanup? 24HR HELP 315-726-3216 Are you looking for home disaster damage cleanup? We #39;re the number one company when...

By: Enoch Munson

More here:
Sprinkler System Cleanup BALDWINSVILLE NY 13027 Service Team - Video

Sprinkler System Cleanup CAMILLUS NY 13031 Service
Fire Sprinkler, Mold Restoration, Sump Pump Broken? For Help call 315-726-3216 Searching for property damage cleaning? We are the preferred crew when it come...

By: Moshe Olin

Continued here:
Sprinkler System Cleanup CAMILLUS NY 13031 Service - Video

Sprinkler System Cleanup MOTTVILLE NY 13119 Pros
Fire Sprinkler, Basement Flooded, Flood Cleanup? For Help call 315-726-3216 Considering household damage repair? We are the preferred crew when it comes to C...

By: Melda Guillory

Here is the original post:
Sprinkler System Cleanup MOTTVILLE NY 13119 Pros - Video

Sprinkler System Cleanup MANHASSET NY 11030 Professionals
Fire Sprinkler, Mold Restoration, Hurricane Cleanup? For Help call 516-399-7090 Are you looking for property damage cleanup? We are the best when you are dea...

By: Whitney Noble

Excerpt from:
Sprinkler System Cleanup MANHASSET NY 11030 Professionals - Video

Sprinkler System Cleanup EAST ROCKAWAY NY 11518 Service Team
Fire Sprinkler, Mold Restoration, Water Damage? 24HR HELP 516-399-7090 Are you looking for household damage repair? We are the number one company when you ar...

By: Dexter Owen

Read the rest here:
Sprinkler System Cleanup EAST ROCKAWAY NY 11518 Service Team - Video

Sprinkler System Cleanup SYRACUSE NY 13201 Service
Frozen Pipes, Water Extraction, Water Damage? 24HR HELP 315-726-3216 Are you looking for property disaster damage repair? We are the greatest for all Broken ...

By: Mose Arthur

Read more from the original source:
Sprinkler System Cleanup SYRACUSE NY 13201 Service - Video

Sprinkler System Cleanup APULIA STATION NY 13020 Service Team
Fire Sprinkler, Fire Restoration, Water Damage? 24HR HELP 315-726-3216 Searching for household damage cleaning? We #39;re the greatest for all Certified Water Restoring, Smoke Damage Restoration...

By: Frances Craddock

Read the rest here:
Sprinkler System Cleanup APULIA STATION NY 13020 Service Team - Video

Published: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 at 10:39 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 at 11:18 a.m.

BARTOW | The Polk County Courthouse was evacuated for about 20 minutes this morning after dust particles triggered a smoke alarm.

Loud emergency sirens inside the courthouse directed everyone to exit, and hundreds of people lined the streets as a fire engine drove by with lights and sirens blaring.

A maintenance worker inadvertently triggered a smoke alarm while working on the sprinkler system in the sixth-floor maintenance closet, Court Administrator Nick Sudzina said.

Dust particles were agitated and blown into the sprinkler system, setting off the alarm, he said.

To prevent this from occurring again, the sprinkler bypass system will be engaged during any maintenance work, Sudzina said.

"The good thing about this incident is the evacuation system worked as it is supposed to and everyone left the building timely and reported to the proper assembly area," he said in an email.

Go here to see the original:
Dust Particles Triggered Smoke Alarm at County Courthouse