Firefighters in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have noticed a change in spruce trees along river corridors, the destructive effects of the spruce beetle.

A 2016 aerial survey conducted by the Alaska Division of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service looked at 30 million acres across the state and found more than 193,000 acres had damage attributed to spruce beetles. The Forest Service says that’s a six-fold increase over 2015.

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