212 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



in 1947 that nationwide efforts were possible. 

 Under this act, survey's reaching into all of the 

 forested regions of the country have been initiated. 

 These are designed to help detect serious insect 

 and disease outbreaks, and to appraise their mag- 

 nitude and trends, so that prompt control measures 

 can be taken. 



Appropriations have been made available under 

 the act for forest insect and disease surveys on 

 Federal forest lands and for cooperation with the 

 States and private timber owners in expanding 

 survey coverage to all ownersliips. The detection 

 of outbreaks is recognized as the primary responsi- 

 bility of tlie landowner, whUe such technical 

 supervision and guidance as may be needed is 

 usually furnished by Federal leadership. 



When Federal financial aid is requested for 

 control, the Forest Service appraises the extent 

 and importance of insect and disease outbreaks 

 that are deemed serious enough to warrant control 

 action, and estimates the cost of control. The 

 Service provides technical supervision for control 

 projects involving Federal participation and 

 checks the results of control. Assistance in the 

 detection phase of the program is given by other 

 Federal land-managing agencies, by the State 

 forestry services, and by private timber owners. 

 Sm'veys were run in 1952 on many outbreaks, 

 among the more important of which were those 

 caused bv the Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, 

 western pine, and southern pine beetles, the 

 spruce budworm, and the larch sawflj". 



The importance of detection surveys in a pro- 

 gram of protection from insect outbreaks has been 

 recognized by States and by private timber owners. 

 In many parts of the country forest pest control 

 action councils have been organized to encourage 

 adequate surveys and the participation of private 

 timber owners in control work. 



Most Major Insects Now Combated 

 by Direct Measures 



The protection of timber resources from forest 

 insects can be accomplished either bj^' the preven- 

 tion of outbreaks, theh direct control, or the re- 

 duction of losses through a program of salvage 

 and iitilization. During the past 10 j^ears, many 

 new materials and methods for killing destructive 

 forest insects have been developed. For the 

 control of certain bark beetles, penetrating oil 

 sprays have been used successfully on large-scale 

 control projects that would previously have been 

 too costly to undertake. Aerial spraying and 

 new insecticides such as DDT, developed during 

 World War II, have made possible the effective 

 control of defoliators over large areas at low cost. 

 Following DDT came other new synthetic in- 

 secticides that have proved effective in the control 

 of many forest insects. Recently, the dhect 

 control of forest insects through aerial sprays 



or the application of insecticides to the bark of 

 infested trees has reached considerable magnitude 

 and effectiveness. 



Destruction of beetle populations through 

 bm'ning or spraying bark has been at least tem- 

 porarily effective in many cases. Epidemics are 

 also often controlled by some natural factor, or 

 come to a halt through the depletion of susceptible 

 host material. 



The emergency and temporary character of most 

 direct control is well recognized, and efforts are 

 being directed towards developing effective bio- 

 logical control and in managing forest stands so 

 as to make them more resistant to insect attacks. 

 Unfortunately, the development of satisfactory 

 control methods of these kinds is very slow. 

 Aleanwhile, it will often be necessary to continue 

 with direct control methods to prevent exces- 

 sive losses. 



Forestry agencies in many areas of the countr}' 

 are now organized to handle direct control pro- 

 grams. In 1952 Federal funds helped finance a 

 major share of the cost of 12 large insect-control 

 operations and many smaller insect and disease 

 projects tliroughout the country. On at least four 

 of the large operations. State and private funds 

 were raised to share in the project costs. The 

 other projects were wholly on national-forest or 

 national-park lands, and the full cost was met by 

 the Federal Government. The Forest Seiwice 

 fiu-nished plans and technical supervision, but the 

 projects were administered by the land-managing 

 agency inost concerned. 



Where substantial acreages of private or State 

 lands were involved, control was carried out under 

 the cooperative provisions of the Forest Pest 

 Control Act and complementary State forest pest 

 control laws. Most States with substantial 

 amounts of forest land have passed legislation 

 authorizing appropriate State officers, such as the 

 State forester, to control forest pests. In general, 

 authorit}'' is granted to declare forest pests a 

 public nuisance and require landowners to dis- 

 pose of such pests either by themselves or with 

 the help of State and Federal authorities. 



Where the Federal Forest Pest Control Act 

 applies, the Federal Government can pay a part of 

 the cost of control, usually not more than 25 

 percent, on State and private lands. "NMiere con- 

 trol work on private land is done in accordance 

 with State authority, the costs may be met in 

 part by State funds. The act is not mandatory 

 or regulatory. It has been of great help in uni- 

 fying methods and coordinating action. 



Forest insect control expenditm-es in 1952 by 

 State, private, and Federal agencies totaled 

 $3,595,500 (table 132). Gypsy moth control made 

 up nearly half of this total. Most of the remain- 

 ing expenditures were for the control of the spruce 

 budworm, Engelmann spruce beetle, and pine 

 beetles in the West and South. 



