Integrated pest management and the eastern spruce budworm

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Abstract The eastern spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.), is one of the most widely distributed and the most destructive forest insects in North America. The recent outbreak of this pest extending over the 1970s and early 1980s was unprecedented in size and severity. Unparalleled research efforts during the outbreak in most political jurisdictions made major contributions to the components of the classical integrated pest management system including population dynamics and epidemiology of the budworm. The dynamics of forest stands in relation to budworm populations, the socio-economic impact of the budworm on resource values, the treatment strategies and cost benefit analysis and the basic mechanism of pest management decision making must be considered within the overall framework of forest management. The vast geography of the budworm inherently includes forest stands of different species content, with variable site and climatic conditions which result in significant differences in budworm host interactions. Such differences induce additional variability in the response and role of secondary pests in the overall impact of the budworm. Furthermore, major differences exist in the basic resource management policy of the political jurisdictions. The sum of the preceding factors preclude a generally functional and widely accepted integrated management system for the eastern spruce budworm, but sufficient information exists for developing it for some regions. Imminent advances in knowledge and technology will improve our understanding of the problem but public participation in the integrated management of the spruce budworm will become increasingly influential.