34 



State forest lands which our department manages, 10 million acres 

 of private forest lands, and 5 million acres of Federal lands. And 

 this does not include all the wilderness areas and everjrthing else; 

 this is the commercial forest land, so of course that other land is 

 in there, too. 



And then my second concern, as the manager of a statewide for- 

 est health program, our clients have 10 million plus acres, or more 

 than 12 million acres of commercial forest lands, and I serve those 

 people directly, so I have a great concern for those folks. And the 

 new and exotic pests are our collective worst fears. That is what 

 we fear most. 



Since 1965, I have dealt with all kinds of pests in Washington. 

 You name it, I have probably dealt with it. And most of them are 

 native, but a few of them are exotics and they have cost us plenty. 

 We have spent a great deal of money, over $130 million since 1980, 

 in the collective States on just the Gypsy Moth Program alone. Ev- 

 erybody is pretty familiar with that. And just a single eradication 

 spray near Tacoma, Washington, for a suspected Asian gypsy moth 

 infestation, cost more than $13.5 million. And that spray was based 

 on the trapping of just six insects that probably were escapees that 

 came off the side of a ship somewhere, that came from the Russian 

 Far East in all probability. 



So there are some really big costs there, and that is kind of 

 where I am coming from, is the cost of what it would be to people 

 like us in Government. 



Mr. Rose. Now, I don't understand why the gypsy moth spraying 

 costs so much. 



Mr. Russell. It was a preventive spray. Kind of like the Medfly 

 spray done in California. An eradication spray to prevent the Asian 

 gypsy moth from getting a larger foothold in the Tacoma area. 

 They had trapped just six insects. 



Mr. DeFazio. I might explain to the Chairman, if I could, Mr. 

 Chairman, that the Asian gypsy moth differs from the European in 

 that it poses much more of a threat because, as I understand, what 

 is it, the female can fly,. 



Mr. Russell. Yes, the female. 



Mr. DeFazio. So they had to cover a wide range. Whereas, with 

 the European gypsy moth, they cannot fly and you can do a much 

 more sector-specific treatment. 



Mr. Rose. So I am trying to see Mr. Russell's concern. You are 

 concerned about the gypsy moth. 



Mr. Russell. The Asian gypsy moth. 



Mr. Rose. The Asian gypsy moth. You are concerned about that? 



Mr. Russell. Yes, very much so. 



Mr. Rose. But you think the reaction was too costly? 



Mr. Russell. Well, it is just that we do not want the Asian 

 gypsy moth there. And here we are, we get some Asian gypsy 

 moths coming in on a ship and we are forced into a situation to 

 do this kind of a spray project at great expense. Great Government 

 expense mostly. And that is the concern. 



So what I did is use that to illustrate the point that when these 

 things come in, it hits us right in the pocketbook really fast. 



Mr. Rose. Go ahead. 



