OLYMPIA, Wash. – An annual report from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources is highlighting the impact last summer’s heat wave had on our state’s forests.
New data from 2021 shows that 555,000 acres of forest were damaged in total.
Most of those forests were in Western Washington, with some of the most significant damage reported on the Olympic Peninsula and in southwestern counties.
DNR also attributed damage to invasive insects and plant diseases.
Here in Whatcom County, the DNR said that a type of sooty bark disease has been cropping up in maples and Pacific dogwoods.
The report isn’t all doom and gloom, however.
Damage from certain beetle species, including the pine bark and Douglas fir beetle, has been on a steady decline.
