ALLONS, Tenn. – Lillydale Campground on the shores of Dale Hollow Lake features beautiful waterfront campsites and is a favorite getaway spot for thousands of campers every year. With its breathtaking wide-open views, it’s hard to imagine that just over a decade ago it looked more like a war zone than a favorite camping destination.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District closed the campground for the entire 2001 recreation season when an army of southern pine beetles infested 1,200 mature loblolly pine trees that provided plush shade for visitors. Another 300 pines were also removed from nearby Willow Grove Campground, but it remained open.
“It basically devastated 90 percent of loblolly pine coverage of the (Lillydale) campground,” said Dale Hollow Lake Park Ranger and Environmental Protection Specialist Sondra Carmen. “So in 2001 the Army Corps of Engineers at Dale Hollow had to close the campground in order to remove the dead trees, reestablish the campsite, provide for public safety, and open up an opportunity for better camping than before.”
The beetle epidemic ravaged pine forests across Tennessee and Kentucky in 2000 and the U.S. Forest Service estimates 90 percent of all loblolly pines succumbed to the infestation. Dale Hollow Lake Conservation Biologist Gregg Nivens explained that the pine beetles basically bored into the tree bark and the females constructed long, winding, S-shaped tunnels that girdled the trees and starved the trees of water and nutrients.
The small bugs literally brought down these large and majestic loblolly pine trees, and “it was like restarting over again,” Nivens said.
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