PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — What had been a campground shaded in whispering pines is now barren after an army of rice-sized bugs swept through last year.

        Because of the danger of falling dead trees, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers had to cut down about 400 towering pines on one campground at Dewey Lake in eastern Kentucky after the infestation of southern pine beetles.

        The bugs killed about 130 more trees at a recreational area below Dewey Dam, turning a popular picnic spot into a barren hillside.

        Across the region, the tiny bugs with the voracious appetites have left the state's oldest pine forests teetering on decaying trunks and the views from some of the most beautiful parks drastically changed.

        “We have completed an assessment that shows pine beetle damage in 13 of our 49 state parks,” said Mike Crain, director of project administration for the Kentucky Department of Parks. “We've estimated that to clean up the problem, as we see it now, will cost about $1.4 million.”

        That means cutting trees away from recreation areas, campgrounds, roads, trails and power lines. The hardest hit parks include Cumberland Falls, Dale Hollow, General Burnside and Kingdom Come.

        Chain-saw crews, finishing the work the bugs started, have been cutting trees that pose the greatest risk of falling on people. So far, state and federal officials said, no one has been seriously injured in Kentucky by a falling pine tree.

        “We've been involved in tree removal since midsummer of 2001, particularly removing trees at high risk to life and safety,” Mr. Crain said. “We'll continue that.”

        Mason Miller, engineering and recreation staff officer for U.S. Forest Service in Winchester, said the dead trees pose a serious safety hazard until they're removed, whether they're around campgrounds, recreational areas or roads.

        Mr. Miller said the U.S. Forest Service will have to remove dead pines from 358 miles of road and 285 miles of trail in the Daniel Boone National Forest. He said that'll be at a cost of about $564,000.

        “It's really important that we get these trees down,” he said. “After these trees die, they deteriorate really rapidly.”

        In the Daniel Boone National Forest, where 85 to 90 percent of the pine trees are dead, the Forest Service has teamed up with state and local government and electric utilities to tackle with the problem.

        “It's really expensive to remove these trees,” Mr. Miller said.

        “We do hazard-tree analysis every year, but we've been particularly hard hit in the last few years because of the southern pine beetle.”

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