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<p>Armed with binoculars and a tape measure, Keri Skvarla will be trekking through area woods the next few weeks hunting for fuzzy tan gypsy moth egg deposits on trees and rocks.</p><p>It&#8217;s not what she expected to be doing when she was hired as a Luzerne County government staff engineer in May, before an explosion of the leaf-devouring pests prompted the administration to designate her the county&#8217;s gypsy moth coordinator.</p><p>Her initial assignments to help devise a maintenance schedule for all county buildings and equipment and work on an energy saving initiative have been mostly pushed aside so she can process mounds of paperwork required for the county&#8217;s reactivated participation in the state&#8217;s aerial gypsy moth spraying program for 2016.</p><p>Requests to spray more than 1,700 properties were submitted to the county engineer&#8217;s office by Friday&#8217;s application deadline, Skvarla said.</p><p><strong>Verification needed</strong></p><p>Now the county must visit these properties to count samples of gypsy moth egg masses and verify the tracts contain enough forested area to meet state guidelines. This data must be entered into a computer program by Sept. 18 so the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources can determine which applications will be approved, she said.</p><p>Spray sites must contain at least 23 wooded acres, with the option for neighboring property owners to combine into a single treatment &#8220;block&#8221; to meet the requirement. Property owners also must meet conditions involving a minimum number of gypsy moth egg masses per acre and percentage of tree species highly favored by gypsy moths.</p><p>Skvarla plans to wear a florescent vest when she&#8217;s in the woods and isn&#8217;t daunted by the prospect of scouting unfamiliar and often isolated terrain solo.</p><p>&#8220;I grew up in the country. I&#8217;ll be fine,&#8221; said the 23-year-old Hunlock Township native and Wilkes University graduate.</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s our frontier woman,&#8221; said her boss, Luzerne County Operational Services Division Head Tanis Manseau, crediting her for quickly getting up to speed on the spraying program requirements.</p><p>Due to the high volume of requests, the county has purchased five iPads at $800 each so Skvarla and others assisting with this data collection can complete and submit reports to the state while they are at each property instead of wasting time writing down the information for entry later. Four master gardeners affiliated with the Penn State Extension have volunteered to help complete some site assessments, she said.</p><p>Property owners should not expect Skvarla to meet with them during inspections because there is too much territory to cover on deadline, she said.</p><p>Applications came in from throughout the county, with heavy concentrations in the Hazleton, Mountain Top, Back Mountain and Bear Creek areas, she said. She&#8217;s using maps and parcel identifiers to develop a schedule that will allow her to hit as many sites as possible on each trip.</p><p><strong>Billing participants</strong></p><p>Skvarla&#8217;s gypsy moth duties won&#8217;t stop with data submission.</p><p>The state will send back a list of properties approved for participation, and the county must notify and bill these property owners. Property owners will have the option to opt out if they don&#8217;t want to pay $55 per acre for the spraying, she said.</p><p>Some citizens have urged the county to pick up the tab, but others say the county should not shoulder the expense of spraying private property.</p><p>Manseau noted the county already has invested extensive staff time coordinating the program and will fund the iPads and mailing of notification letters to eligible property owners.</p><p>&#8220;None of this was budgeted, and we are spending a fair amount of our resources to try to support this program,&#8221; he said.</p><p><strong>Opted out</strong></p><p>Despite promises to automatically participate in gypsy moth spraying annually, prior county officials opted out of the program in 2010 amid staff layoffs and a cyclical decline in the gypsy moth population. Several years passed without a significant problem, but a gypsy moth outbreak this spring prompted a public outcry for spraying. It was too late to spray this year because planning must begin the prior year.</p><p>State officials have attributed this year&#8217;s widespread defoliation to hot, dry weather that allowed the gypsy moths to flourish in the county. Healthy trees can usually survive one year of defoliation, but a second year in a row can be deadly, state officials say.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Luzerne County staff engineer Keri Skvarla and county Operational Services Division Head Tanis Manseau review photos of gypsy moth egg deposits like the ones she will be seeking in area forests in coming weeks. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_keri.jpeg1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Luzerne County staff engineer Keri Skvarla and county Operational Services Division Head Tanis Manseau review photos of gypsy moth egg deposits like the ones she will be seeking in area forests in coming weeks. </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County engineer heading into the woods in war against gypsy moths