Spruce Budworm

Maine SBW Task Force

  • University of Maine
  • Cooperative Forestry Reasearch Unit
  • Center for Research on Sustainable Forests
  • Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry
  • Maine Forest Products Council
  • Maine Tree Foundation

News & Events

Maine Forest Service Releases 2020 SBW Report

Background As growing spruce budworm populations continue to fluctuate in Maine, the Maine Forest Service, University of Maine Cooperative Forestry Research Unit (CFRU), and our cooperator network are tracking populations carefully in anticipation of an approaching outbreak. Historical data tells us that Maine is due for another SBW outbreak and monitoring efforts illustrate that over the last several years, SBW populations appear to have risen above endemic levels experienced between outbreak ... Read More ›

Maine L2 2021 Update

Neil Thompson, Irving Woodlands Forestry Professor at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, presents a short update on findings from spruce budworm second in-star (L2) research in Maine. Watch the short video here. ... Read More ›

Maine Forest Service Releases 2019 SBW Update

The Maine Forest Service, cooperators within and outside the state, and Canadian provinces are working together to monitor and predict the growth of the spruce budworm population and its potential impact on the region’s forests. For several years now in Maine, both pheromone trap and light trap catches have been above numbers expected. In 2019, statewide overall  average trap catches increased more than threefold.  In addition, light traps operated statewide witnessed a dramatic increase in ... Read More ›

NB Pheromone Traps Reveals SBW Moth Populations

Update from the automatic pheromone traps in New Brunswick. First moth this year was caught in Saint Modeste (QC) on June 30. Pics are from trap captures for the nights of July 7-8 and 8-9. Catches have been mostly on the NW border of NB and South Tetagouche so far. Potential flights were in the SE direction the night of July 07-08. ... Read More ›

Maine Forest Service Releases 2018 SBW Update

The Maine Forest Service, cooperators within and outside the state, and Canadian provinces are working together to monitor and predict the growth of the spruce budworm population and its potential impact on the region’s forests. Over the last several years, Spruce budworm populations in Maine have left the “stable” phase and appear to be building. Pheromone and light trap catches have been up above zero for a number of years, defoliation in Quebec has increased year after year, defoliation has ... Read More ›

Changes in Spatiotemporal Patterns of 20th Century Spruce Budworm Outbreaks

In a newly released article ("Changes in Spatiotemporal Patterns of 20th Century Spruce Budworm Outbreaks in Eastern Canadian Boreal Forests") published in Frontiers in Plant Science, authors Lionel Navarro, Hubert Morin, Yves Bergeron and Miguel Montoro Girona provide for the first time a landscape reconstruction of the spatiotemporal pattern of spruce budworm (SBW) dynamics over the last century across a vast study area of almost 1 million km2 in the eastern Canadian boreal forest. In ... Read More ›