give to managers of Federal lands that are intermin- 
gled with State and private lands the information 
needed to fulfill USDA pest management coordina- 
tion roles. The information is available to State and 
private managers and is used to determine the con- 
dition of the Nation's forest resources with respect 
to pest-caused damage. 
The program shares the cost of providing tech- 
nical assistance and transferring research results to 
private forest landowners, helping ensure coordina- 
tion of a sound pest management program. Coordi- 
nating pest management across all forest owner- 
ships increases effectiveness and efficiency and 
minimizes damage to the environment and human 
health that can result from uninformed and uncoor- 
dinated pest-management activities. 
In 1986, this program surveyed about 215 mil- 
lion acres of State and private lands in the South to 
detect pests. These surveys resulted in 714 evalua- 
tions of pest conditions. In addition, the program 
helped train 5,470 State personnel in insect and 
disease management and about 2,000 personnel in 
the management and coordination of pesticide use 
in 1986. 
The objectives of Cooperative Insect and Dis- 
ease Suppression are to reduce or prevent unac- 
ceptable forest resource losses on State and private 
forests by suppressing damaging forest insects and 
diseases with the latest integrated pest manage- 
ment techniques, and to facilitate the coordination 
of suppression projects on intermingled land own- 
erships. 
In 1986, this program treated 58,000 acres of 
State and private lands, protected 1.3 million cubic 
feet of merchantable timber, and removed 79,000 
cubic feet of infested merchantable timber through 
salvage operations in the Southern States. Program 
activities aimed almost entirely at helping landown- 
ers cope with southern pine beetle. 
State/Local Programs--Many of the State/local 
pest management programs are designed to com- 
plement Federal/State programs. While Federal/ 
State programs emphasize addressing Southwide 
problems, localized problems may escape Federal 
assistance. Broad-spectrum, multifaceted training 
and technical assistance would not be provided - 
without State programs. State programs also sup- 
plement Federal activities to provide complete 
Statewide assessments of the insect and disease 
situation. 
State programs include development of infor- 
mation systems, evaluations of nursery and regen- 
eration diseases and seed orchard insects, monitor- 
ing, and pesticide studies. Many publications on 
pest problems are available to forest managers 
through State/local programs. Many States have 
personnel who provide training that leads to certi- 
fied pest applicator status for forest managers and 
workers. State entomologists and pathologists re- 
spond to inquiries for pest identifications and pesti- 
cide recommendations for landowners and the gen- 
eral public. 
Efficiency--In an analysis of the southern pine bee- 
tle problem (de Steiguer and Hedden 1985), the 
most efficient program for control was defined as 
that program which maximized dollar value of timber 
saved minus the costs of control. Depending on the 
discount rate used, program costs of $6 million to 
$9.5 million were optimal. The program costs for 
combined Federal and State expenditures for all 
insects and diseases (table 2) fall in the acceptable 
range. 
Program effectiveness has been increased in 
several ways. Outbreaks of southern pine beetle 
can be predicted with far greater accuracy and 
damage minimized by quicker response due to im- 
proved information systems and models. Efficiency 
has also increased with improved aerial survey 
techniques and flight equipment. 
The 1985 Resources Planning Act (RPA) 
The Forest Service's Resources Planning Act 
Program provides a useful point of departure for 
considering future protection policy and programs 
(USDA Forest Service 1986b). The RPA sets a na- 
tional goal for protection and identifies a number of 
opportunities to respond to this goal. 
The Recommended State and Private Forestry 
RPA Program is intended to help increase the pro- 
ductivity of private forest lands via pest manage- 
ment and fire protection. 
The RPA Program is presented in two levels, a 
high bound and a low bound. Depending upon the 
level selected, the impacts on future policy and pro- 
grams for protection are quite different. 
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