White Pines Threatened 



The White Pine Blister Rust Existing 

 Menaces Trees Which are 



Request For Public Aid 



THE American Forestry Association requests the 

 cooperation of its members in the endeavor to 

 prevent the spread of the white pine blister rust, 

 which threatens the destruction of white pine and all 

 five-leaved pines in the United States and Canada. 

 This disease has already appeared in thirteen states in 

 the United States and two provinces in Canada. 



The chestnut blight is rapidly des- 

 troying all the chestnut trees in the 

 United States because no serious 

 attempt to combat it was made until 

 it was beyond the possibility of con- 

 trol. The white pine blister rust 

 threatens similar devastation of the 

 white pines, but there is still time to 

 save them from the fate of the 

 chestnut, if decisive action is im- 

 mediately taken. The loss of the 

 chestnut is a disaster, but the loss 

 of the white pine, because of its 

 wide distribution, the immense 

 present value of the timber and the 

 great future value of the young 

 growth, is an impending calamity, 

 appalling to contemplate. The most 

 hopeful feature of the situation is 

 due to the peculiar fact that it is 

 necessary for the blister rust fungus 

 to pass one stage of its life on the 

 leaves of currants and gooseberries. 

 Since the disease cannot spread if 

 currant and gooseberry bushes are lacking, the destruc- 

 tion of currant and gooseberry bushes of all kinds appears 

 to be a practicable means of controlling the disease, if it is 

 done before the pines become infected. 

 The estimated value of the white pine is as follows : 



New England States . . $75,000,000.00 



Lake States 95,000,000.00 



Western States 60,000,000.00 



National Forests 30,000,000.00 



Experts believe that if the disease reaches the Pacific 

 Coast that the western sugar pine will also be affected. 

 The estimated value of this western pine is : 



Western States $105,000,000.00 



National Forests 45,000.00 



The valuation of the pines which are threatened by the 

 disease is, therefore: eastern and western white pines, 



L 



HOW TO PREVENT THE 



SPREAD OF THE WHITE PINE 



BLISTER RUST 



Experts declare that the way to 

 prevent its spreading is to: 



Destroy all gooseberry and currant 

 bushes, wild and cultivated (includ- 

 ing flowering currants), in and near 

 sections where the disease prevails. 



Destroy all five-needled pine trees 

 on which blister rust infection ap- 

 pears. 



Prohibit the shipment of white pine 

 seedlings from infected sections. 



Plant no white pine trees unless 

 the source from which they come is 

 known, and then only when state or 

 government authorities vouch for 

 the fact that the trees are free from 

 blister rust and that it is advisable 

 to plant them. 



$260,000,000.00; western sugar pine, $150,000,000.00, or a 

 total of $410,000,000,00. 



Vigorous and immediate action is necessary. If the dis- 

 ease can be stamped out, it is much easier and less costly 

 to do it now than it will be when it has a wider area of 

 infection. Neither state nor government authorities alone 

 or together have the funds or facilities or the power to 

 fight this disease the way it should 

 be fought. Individual owners of 

 timber lands, farm lands, waste- 

 lands, owners of gooseberry and cur- 

 rant bushes, and the general public 

 must be aroused to a realization of 

 the danger and the damage threat- 

 ened. Earnest public agitation in all 

 the states where the disease has ap- 

 peared is needed, and needed now. 

 The American Forestry Associa- 

 tion will devote itself to the work of 

 saving the white pine, and earnestly 

 hopes that all of its members will 

 cooperate in every way they can. 



The white pine blister rust, as has 

 already been explained in AMERI- 

 CAN FORESTRY, appears as a fun- 

 gus which is parasitic on white pine 

 trees. In the latter part of May and 

 early June the spores are spread by 

 the wind to currant and gooseberry 

 bushes. On these bushes they ap- 

 pear as a yellow rust on the under 

 side of the leaves, but do no damage. 



Throughout the summer they may be spread by the wind 

 from bush to bush, and in this way have been known to 

 infect large areas, even traveling at times as many as 

 twenty miles in one summer. From late June until the 

 leaves fall, another form of spore develops on the goose- 

 berries and currants, and this is spread by the wind back 

 to the white pine, where the destruction is caused. 



Because of the rapid spread of the blister rust and the 

 great damage which it causes to one of the most valuable 

 timber crops of the country, foresters agree that it is neces- 

 sary to destroy all kinds of currants and gooseberries until 

 tiie rust has been thoroughly stamped out. 



Government and state experts have been in the field for 

 some time making investigations of areas where the rust 

 has appeared and also in examining gooseberry and currant 



