A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 1217 



The great areas covered by individual insect epidemics neces- 

 sitates something more than action by individual States. It is 

 obvious that the effort and expenditure of one or more States may 

 be completely wasted unless adjacent States give needed cooperation 

 effectively. 



CLASSES OF CONTROL WORK 



Forest insect control may be divided into (1) investigative work 

 on life history of the insects and their predators; (2) extensive insect 

 survey w^ork carried on constantly to locate insect epidemics in their 

 incipiency and to furnish continuous information on changes in the 

 various stages of each forest insect infestation; (3) control work 

 proper, when the insects start or have started an epidemic, to check 

 the spread of the epidemic. 



The investigative work should be carried on by a corps of experts 

 employed throughout the year. The extensive survey work need 

 not be done by specialists but could be handled by rangers, wardens, 

 or others familiar with general woods work, after a small amount 

 of special training. Many States now have fire protective organiza- 

 tions in the field that would be useful in this type of insect work. 

 In addition, some general supervision would have to be provided 

 through either Federal or State agencies properly coordinated. 

 Constant extensive insect survey should result in the location of 

 forest insect infestations in their earliest or strictly local stages. In 

 this stage local forces should do all in their power to stop them. Such 

 control work is often very effective. It may usually be done before 

 or after the fire season and, like the survey work, may be handled to 

 a large extent by present State and private fire organizations. 



CONTROL OF EPIDEMICS 



When the epidemic is beyond local control, an emergency is pre- 

 sented which necessitates cooperation by the Federal Government 

 with the States affected and threatened. 



Whatever work is deemed necessary should be done on the same 

 basis as fire-fighting work on Government land. Forest insects 

 during a rising epidemic may increase at a ratio of 10 to 1 between 

 the brood of 1 year and the next. A ratio of 5 to 1 each year is 

 perhaps the average during the rise of an epidemic, which may 

 extend over several years. The economy of doing control work 

 when, say, 1,000 insects are active as against the next season with 

 5,000 is obvious. 



Control of insect epidemics must apparently be undertaken by 

 the Federal Government directly if effective action is to be had. 

 It is impossible to estimate for annual needs of this kind as accurately 

 as for fire control, because the variation in need is much greater, 

 and it is therefore hardly logical to expect State organizations to deal 

 with such epidemics as adequately as with fire or with insect survey 

 and local control. Insect epidemic control must seemingly be 

 conducted on much the same basis as control of dangerous infesta- 

 tions of farm crops by parasitic insects. There are many precedents 

 for such action, of which the provision of Federal appropriations for 

 control of the corn borer is well known. Federal appropriations to 

 date for corn borer eradication approximate $18,000,000. The 

 work was handled directly by the Federal Government, with such 



