Figure 9. — Though the mountain 

 pine beetle is being blamed for the 

 loss of millions of board feet of 

 sowtimber on the North Slope, these 

 losses are only the dramatic finale 

 to a long history of stand deteriora- 

 tion. The buildup of the insect at- 

 tack in this stand and others started 

 in overage timber long past its 

 prime. 



Figure 10. — The strategy of pine 

 beetle control has been based on 

 destroying infested trees by spray- 

 ing or other means. The most dra- 

 matic and imaginative approach 

 was "Operation Pushover." The 

 trees on several thousand acres of 

 badly infested timber were pushed 

 over, piled, and burned. This op- 

 eration not only killed the insects, 

 it also destroyed the dwarfmistle- 

 toe and cleared the ground for 

 disease-free new stands. 



10 



