Private landowners in Northeast Florida can apply for assistance fighting a pine beetle that has destroyed thousands of acres of timber in Florida.

A periodic beetle outbreak last struck between 1999 and 2002 in Florida, causing an estimated $59 million in timber losses.

The Florida Forest Service’s Southern Pine Beetle Assistance and Prevention Program offers partial reimbursement for activities like prescribed burning and the planting of longleaf or slash pine rather than loblolly pine, the beetle’s preferred species. 

Duval, Nassau, Clay, Putnam, St. Johns and Baker counties are among the 44 northern Florida counties where private forest landowners can apply for the program at FDACS.gov/SPBPrevention.