West Coast forest insects
| Authors: | Andris Eglitis, Elizabeth A. Willhite |
| Year: | 2012 |
| Type: | General Technical Report |
| Station: | Southern Research Station |
| Source: | Bechtold, William A.; Bohne, Michael J.; Conkling, Barbara L.; Friedman, Dana L.; Tkacz, Borys M., eds. 2012. A synthesis of evaluation monitoring projects by the forest health monitoring program (1998–2007). Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-159. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 140 p. |
Abstract
This chapter describes seven projects focusing on the effects of defoliators, bark beetles, and the balsam woolly adelgid. Two of the defoliator projects addressed the effects of defoliation by the western spruce budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis), while a third developed methods for using satellite imagery to assess distribution of the aspen leaf miner (Phyllocnistis populiella) in Alaska. The budwormrelated projects considered the effects on fire potential and on the unstable habitat of the northern spotted owl east of the Cascade Mountains. Three bark beetle projects dealt with the Douglas-fir beetle (Dendroctonus pseudotsugae), spruce beetle (D. rufipennis), and pine beetles in southern California. The Douglas-fir beetle project examined the accuracy of the Cooperative Aerial Detection Survey using the bark beetle as a test case for evaluating survey mapping. A spruce beetle outbreak led to significant changes in vegetation on the Kenai Peninsula, and its effects were studied by using data from forest inventory plots. In another project, bark beetle mortality in southern California was measured from plots of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and compared to mortality mapped from aerial survey and other sources. One project used a ground survey approach to document current distribution and impacts of the nonnative balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae) across Oregon and Washington.