Hungry Horse news., 1954-10-29
Man Gains in Spruce Bark Beetle Fight


/ Fight to save the Flathead's bill
lion board feet of merchantable
spruce timber is showing favor
able signs, reports George Weyer-
man, Flathead National Forest as
sistant supervisor IN charge Of
/ timber management.
Enemy is the spruce bark beetle
that developed into an epidemic Of
tree girdling and killing insects
back in 1852 over the whole west
ern Montana northern d b 0
spruce area.
Bark beetle spread, Weyermaa
commented had been doubling each
year. Now it appears that the rate
of increase has been halved. The
situation is like a flood where wa
ters are still rising, but not as
rapidly.
LOGGING FOR CONTROL
Mans battle to control spruce
bark beetles was through logging
to remove infested trees from the
woods. This provided salvage of
the resource and brought trees
with their hordes of insects out of
the forests where they could spread
and kill more trees.
There was also a trap tree pro-
gram that during the fall of 1858
and spring Of 1854 saw more than
10000 spruce felled in infested
areas. It was found that downed
spruce attracted about 21z times
as many beetles as did standing
timber.
G.. NJ. Bud" Daugherty was in
charge of the trap tree program
Weyerman complimented Flat
head mills for their interest in
seeing that infested spruce was
logged and salvaged. AS a result
since 1852 more than 119 million
board feet of spruce has been log
ged and utilized.
TAKE OUT 25o,oo0 TREES
Weyerman continued that this
means 250,000 spruce trees have
been cut on forest service land IN
the control pro gram. The
program saw much Of the resource
utilized to provide jobs and lum-
Der.
Last year the North Fork, heart
of Flathead spruce land, had cut
of 22,000,000 board feet of which
100000 was spruce.
Flathead National Forests 1854
sale program, according to Wey-
erman, totals 127, ,000, 900 board feet
including about 10000. 600 board
feet of spruce.
Total logging of spruce during
1852, 1858 and so far in 1854 totals
49, 100000 board feet, and before
the year is over, Weyerman ex-
poets that another 10000, 900 board
feet of spruce will be logged.
FRIENDLY WOODPECkERS
Tremendous assistance for mans
b. ~ against the beetles, acco2ss~
ing to Weyerman, have been the
natural forces. There were wood
peckers that feed on insects and
last spring series of sharp freezes
following warm spells that meant
death to beetles.
While some of the national for
ests are virtually writing off their
spruce reserves victims of beetles,
the Flathead now finds its spruce
resource reduced about 10 per
cent. A sizeable portion of the re-
duction became lumber, and hence
not wasted.
THE YUHAS SURVEY
This summer from Aug. l until
Sept. 80 crew of is to 18 Flat
head National Forest men were in
the field surveying spruce bark
beetle infestation under the direc-
ton of Melvin Yuhas, forester out
of the Kalispeu office.
These men examined 100000
acres of national forest land. They
arrived at a figure of 41,600,0OO
board feet of infested timber in
nom wilderness sections of the for
est. This compared with 50, 400, 900
board feet infested in 1858 and
34,20O,000 board feet infested in
1852. The reduction for 1854 re-
suits from logging, trap trees and
natural forces that removed a part
of the infested timber from the
woods.
In addition to the survey under
Yuhas, about 10000 acres of pri-
vate timber lands containing
spruce were partially surveyed by
out of the forest 1abora-
tory at Coeur d'Alene. Other
samplings were taken in the larg-
er Bob Marshall Wilderness area,
and smaller Mission Mountain
wild area. Large areas are wild
erness and smaller, wild.
Figures from the Bob Marshall
are inconclusive and actually in
iicate less infestation for 1854
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