The Korea Forest Service introduced, with anxiety, a case that the severe effects and seriousness of pine wilt disease; due to the spread of pine wilt disease, sacred trees that guarded villages and coexisted with our ancestors have been infected with such a tiny invisible creature, pine wilt.


From ancient times, Koreans built a shrine near a sacred tree which was regarded divine and worshiped a village god there. A spiritual service in front of a sacred tree was performed on the 15th of January according to the lunar calendar for villagers’ well-being. This custom has been traditionally conserved.


For this reason, it was difficult to just chip down sacred trees infected with pine wilt disease even though they were withering up. Consequently, they were left under no proper treatment and, to get worse, used as egg-laying grounds of pine saywers.


The head of a village and villagers gathered to discuss countermeasures against the spread of pine wilt disease and reached a conclusion to cut down the sacred pine tree. However, it is widely believed in Korea that cutting down a sacred tree brings misfortune to villagers so removal work was done after a religious service with villagers.


The Korea Forest Service plans to fumigate logs of sacred trees after the infestation and use them for public education with the consent of villagers. It also asks villagers and civil organizations to cooperate for preservation and protection of pine trees with Korean spirit.





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