In what has become an annual winter tradition, hundreds of torch-bearers set fire to a giant wood beetle effigy in Custer, South Dakota, to raise awareness about the destructive impact of the mountain pine beetle on the Black Hills forest lands.
FAST CITY, SD — In what has become an annual winter tradition, hundreds of torch-bearers set fire to a giant wood beetle effigy in Custer, South Dakota, to raise awareness about the destructive impact of the mountain pine beetle on the Black Hills forest lands.
Custer firefighters prepared and lit torches for residents to carry in a march to the pyre Saturday night at the 11th annual Burning Beetle festival, the Rapid City Journal reported.
People set fire to the tall effigy of the beetle amid drums and chants of “Burn, beetle, burn.” Firefighters maintained vigilance, warning participants not to throw the torches, even as some people threw the burning sticks into the pine trees stacked at the base of the beetle and fireworks dazzled overhead.
The event, which includes a talent show and a “bug crawl,” supports local arts.
The U.S. Forest Service calls the mountain pine beetle “the most aggressive, persistent and destructive bark beetle in the western United States and Canada.” The Black Hills has experienced several outbreaks of the beetle since the 1890s, the most recent being in 1996. 2016, affecting 703 square miles (1,820 square kilometers), according to the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources.