Free dump sites for beetle-killed trees in Mat-Su Borough
Posted May 25, 2019 06:53:42 PM.
PALMER, Alaska — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is offering free sites for disposing of spruce beetle-killed trees.
The Anchorage Daily News reports the sites are the borough’s central landfill, as well as transfer stations at Big Lake and near Talkeetna.
The service is available only to borough residents for private, not commercial, use.
The action comes as officials try to reduce fire danger amid a spruce beetle infestation.
The insects are native to Alaska. The infestations have come in cycles, with the last one damaging nearly 4,700 square miles (12,173 sq. kilometres) in south-central Alaska, primarily on the Kenai Peninsula.
The ongoing infestation has affected nearly 1,600 square miles (4,144 sq. kilometres) in the state, more than half of that in the Mat-Su Borough.
The Associated Press
