17 acres at the Devil’s Creek Trailhead, in Cooper Landing, is closed as of Monday April 17, and will remain closed for about five weeks while work crews use heavy equipment to reduce overhead hazards from trees impacted by spruce beetle.
Wide-scale tree mortality is present in the area and poses an immediate danger to the health and safety of forest users.
A spruce beetle outbreak on the Kenai Peninsula has led to dead or dying spruce trees in and around the Devil’s Creek Trailhead area. Forest health surveys show over 85% of spruce trees in the area are impacted by the outbreak.
Affected trees are susceptible to dropping limbs and falling, creating overhead hazards to people recreating in the area. The work being done at the trailhead helps mitigate overall safety hazards on the forest and reduces fire hazard.
Heavy equipment operations and falling trees during treatment pose an increased risk to anyone recreating in the area. This closure serves to mitigate that risk and facilitate timely completion of the work.
For a detailed description of the closure area, please see the closure order and map.
Spruce beetles are a naturally occurring pest that, given the right environmental conditions, can kill trees across a wide geographical area. An estimated 1.86 million acres of forest in southcentral Alaska have been impacted.