Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-10-17
FOREST INSECT STUDY OF PRAC-
TICAL VALUE.
MUCH TIMBER MAY BE SAVED
Interesting and Valuable Information
as to the Insects Which Are De-
strOying Forest Trees of Southern
Oregon and Northern California.

by the masses of the people as any
branch of government activity. The
work in the horticultural line is bet
ter known than is the forest work,
however. 1t may not be generally
known that the national government
is ready to cooperate with the pri-
vate timber owner in an attempt to
stop the destruction of timber by in
sects, but such is the case. The field
station, which is officially known as
No. 6, which was recently opened in
Ashland with w. d. Edmonston in
charge, has handed the Tidings the
following communications bearing
upon the work of the station. The
following circular is sent out from
Washington by A. d. Hopkins, officer
| in charge of the forest insect investi-
cation:
Insect Control in Private Forests.
THE problem of insect control in
private forests is one in which there
should be direct cooperation be-
! tween the bureau of entomology of
the Department of Agriculture and
the private owner, in which the bu-
reau furnishes the technical informa-
| tion and the owner makes the prac-
tical application, if he considers it
advisable. Therefore it is desierd to
bring the matter to the attention of
their interest and cooperation in the
desired attainment of practical re-
suits from the utilization of informa-
tion acquired through many years of
detailed study by experts on forest
insects; secondarily, to lead to the
| giving of practical instructions and
assistance in the Inauguration of in
sect-control policies wherever there
appears to be special need of it and
where there are at the same time ia
vorable conditions for the attainment
of success, in order that the results
| may SOl VIC do pi tSIlCdl uollOhSIl dllOuS
toward furthering the more general
adoption of practical methods of pre-
venting losses from depredations by
insect enemies of forest trees and
forest products"
Mr.. Edmonston, the official in
charge of the local bureau, has also
kindly furnished the following re-
garding the protection of the pine
timber of this section from depreda-
tions of bark beetles:
Extensive Investigations carried
on during the past five years by the
Department of Agriculture have re-
vealed the fact that large percent
age of the timber within small to ex-
tensive areas in southern Oregon has
been killed in the past seven years
by bark-mining insects known as the
mountain pine beetle and the western
pine beetle.
THE conifers, which are the pre-
dominating trees of this part of the
country, are subject to a high death
rate from insect attack The pines,
the spruces and the frs have each at
least one destructive enemy.
The little genus of Dendroctonus
beetles, or tree-killing beetles, is rep
resented in this locality by at least
two species. These insects are small,
stout, black beetles, less than quar-
ter of an inch in length.
"Dendroctonus monticolae, the
mountain pine beetle, attacks the
yellow pine and sugar pine, and evil
IDENTIFY all other pines of the northern
Rocky mountains and Pacific slope
| The adult beetles fly in the period
from July to October, and attack the
main trunks of the living healthy
trees by boring into the bark and ex-
cavating long, nearly straight egg
galleries between the bark and wood,
the eggs deposited by the beetles
hatch and theyoung grubs, or larvae
forms, mine the inner bark In this
manner they completely girdle and
thus cause the death of their victims,
but the foliage of the infested trees
remains green and apparently
healthy until the following May and
June 1t then begins to change to
pale green and later to yellowish
and brown. BY the time all of the
foliage is dead, about the first of
July, the over wintered broods OF
beetles begin to emerge. BY the mid
die of August most of them are out
of the dead trees and have entered
the living ones.
"Dendroctonus brevicomis, western
pine beetle. This species is next in
Importance to the mountain pine bee
tie as a destructive enemy of the
pine, and the two species often COM
bine in their attack. In this COM
bined attack the western pine beetle
is a secondary enemy of the trees