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

News & Events

To the north, spruce budworm treatment concludes and research begins

In New Brunswick, another year of experimental treatments for the Early Intervention Strategy (EIS) have come to pass. The 2017 treatments began on June 13th, when the spruce budworm larvae were entering their mid instar developmental stage. This timing is important as the insecticides we use must be eaten by the larvae to have an affect. This year our experimental treatment area covered 150 000 ha. To read the full post from Healthy Forest Partnership, click here.   ... Read More ›

Early Intervention Progress in New Brunswick

New Brunswick's early intervention efforts to prevent SBW spread is in full swing. To date, 80% of the project's total area (150,000 ha) has been treated. For more information on the early intervention strategy, visit the Healthy Forest Partnership website. ... Read More ›

New Research on Spruce Budworm

New from the Canadian Journal of Forest Research: Bottom-up factors contribute to large-scale synchrony in spruce budworm populations by Mathieu Bouchard, Jacques Regniere, & Pierre Therrien Understanding the mechanisms that cause large-scale synchrony in insect population dynamics might yield key insights for predicting potential outbreak occurrence. Here, we evaluated which environmental factors best explain synchronous population fluctuations in the spruce budworm (SBW). SBW population ... Read More ›

Balsam Fir Stand Development Post SBW-related Mortality

University of New Brunswick researchers Grant Virgin and Dave MacLean's article, Five Decades of Balsam Fir Stand Development After Spruce Budworm-related Mortality, has just been published online in Forest Ecology and Management. Highlights Five decades of stand development in spruce budworm affected plots in New Brunswick. Stand development and self-thinning patterns varied based on post-outbreak stocking. Thinned and unthinned plots had more volume at younger ages than budworm ... Read More ›

SBW Session at NESAF Meeting in Bangor

Thursday March 9th, 2017, 8am-930am, Bangor ME.  A spruce budworm session will kick off the second day of the Northeastern Forest Pest Council (NEFPC) concurrent session at the Joint New England/New York Society of American Foresters/NEFPC meeting.   Speakers to include Dr. Rob Johns and Dr. Daniel Kneeshaw.  Registration fees apply.Registration details will be available at: https://sites.google.com/site/northeasternforestpestcouncil/meetings. ... Read More ›

Maine Forest Service Releases 2016 SBW Report

The Maine Forest Service has just released a review of spruce budworm conditions in Maine based on the 2016 pheromone trap survey. Maine Forest Service 2016 Spruce Budworm Report Updates to the report will be posted on this site. ... Read More ›

Weather Surveillance Radar and Spruce Budworm Flights

The use of weather surveillance radar and high-resolution three dimensional weather data to monitor a spruce budworm mass exodus flight by Yan Boulanger, Frédéric Fabry, Alamelu Kilambi, Deepa S. Pureswaran, Brian R. Sturtevant, and Rémi Saint-Amant Published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Volumes 234-235, 15 March 2017, pages 127-135. HIGHLIGHTS Weather radar (WSR) and weather data was used to assess spruce budworm (SBW) exodus. WSR suggested that the flight originated from ... Read More ›

Registration Open for NEFPC Annual Meeting March 8-10, 2017

Registration is now open for the Northeastern Forest Pest Council’s (NEFPC) 79th annual meeting, which will be held in conjunction with the New England and New York Societies of American Forester’s meetings and the Maine Chapter of The Wildlife Society at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, ME March 8th-10th, 2017. The NEFPC sessions will cover many forest health issues including spruce budworm. Early registration ends December 31, 2016. For more information, click here.   ... Read More ›