Aerial Overview 2012.Pmd
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Resource Practices Branch Pest Management Report Number 15 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data Main entry under title: Summary of forest health conditions in British Columbia. - - 2001 - Annual. Vols. for 2012- issued in Pest management report series. Also issued on the Internet. ISSN 1715-0167 = Summary of forest health conditions in British Columbia. 1. Forest health - British Columbia - Evaluation - Periodicals. 2. Trees - Diseases and pests - British Columbia - Periodicals. 3. Forest surveys - British Columbia - Periodicals. I. British Columbia. Forest Practices Branch. II. Series: Pest management report. SB764.C3S95 634.9’6’09711 C2005-960057-8 Front cover photo by Joan Westfall: Western hemlock looper defoliation on Quesnel Lake 2012 SUMMARY OF FOREST HEALTH CONDITIONS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA Joan Westfall1 and Tim Ebata2 Contact Information 1 Forest Health Forester, EntoPath Management Ltd., 1654 Hornby Avenue, Kamloops, BC, V2B 7R2. Email: [email protected] 2 Forest Health Officer, Resource Practices Branch, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, PO Box 9513 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, BC, V8W 9C2. Email: [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary ............................................................................................................................................. i Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Methods .............................................................................................................................................. 3 General Conditions ........................................................................................................................... 6 Damaging Agents of Pines ............................................................................................................... 8 Mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae ................................................................... 8 Young Pine Mortality .............................................................................................................. 15 Dothistroma needle blight, Dothistroma septospora .............................................................. 17 Lophodermella needle cast, Lophodermella concolor .................................................................. 18 Neopdiprion sawfly, Neodriprion spp. .................................................................................. 19 Pine needle sheathminer, Zellaria haimbachi ......................................................................... 19 White pine blister rust, Cronartium ribicola ............................................................................ 20 Damaging Agents of Douglas-fir ..................................................................................................... 20 Western spruce budworm, Choristoneura occidentalis ......................................................... 20 Douglas-fir tussock moth, Orgyia pseudotsugata ................................................................... 25 Douglas-fir beetle, Dendroctonus pseudotsugae ..................................................................... 26 Laminated root disease, Phellinus weirii ................................................................................ 28 Damaging Agents of Spruce ............................................................................................................. 29 Spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis ................................................................................... 29 Large-spored spruce-labrador tea rust, Chrysomyxa ledicola ............................................. 30 Damaging Agents of True Fir ........................................................................................................... 31 Western balsam bark beetle, Dryocoetes confusus ................................................................. 31 Two-year-cycle budworm, Choristoneura biennis ................................................................ 32 Balsam woolly adelgid, Adelges piceae .................................................................................. 34 Damaging Agents of Hemlock ......................................................................................................... 35 Western hemlock looper, Lambdina fiscellaria lugubrosa ..................................................... 35 Western blackheaded budworm, Acleris gloverana ............................................................. 37 Damaging Agents of Larch ............................................................................................................... 38 Larch needle blight, Hypodermella laricis .............................................................................. 38 Damaging Agents of Cedar .............................................................................................................. 39 Yellow-cedar decline ................................................................................................................ 39 Damaging Agents of Deciduous Trees .......................................................................................... 39 Aspen (serpentine) leaf miner, Phyllocristis populiella ................................................... 39 Venturia blight, Venturia spp. ............................................................................................. 42 Forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria ....................................................................... 43 Large aspen tortrix, Choristoneura conflictana ................................................................... 44 Birch leafminer, Fenusa pusilla ............................................................................................ 44 Gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar ............................................................................................. 45 Satin moth, Leucoma salicis .................................................................................................. 45 Aspen and birch declines .................................................................................................... 46 Cottonwood leaf rust, Melampsora occidentalis ................................................................ 47 Damaging Agents of Multiple Host Species ................................................................................ 47 Abiotic injury and associated forest health factors ............................................................ 47 Animal damage ....................................................................................................................... 51 Armillaria root disease, Armillaria ostoyae ........................................................................... 52 Conifer seedling weevil, Steremnius carinatus .................................................................... 53 Miscellaneous damaging agents ................................................................................................... 53 Forest Health Projects ...................................................................................................................... 54 Forest Health Meetings ................................................................................................................... 62 Forest Health Presentations ............................................................................................................ 66 Forest Health Publications .............................................................................................................. 82 SUMMARY The 2012 Summary of Forest Health Conditions in British Columbia (BC) is a compilation of 2012 forest health information generated in 2012 from a variety of BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO) sources. The main data source is from the provincial forest health aerial overview survey program. Additional damaging agent information is gathered from insect population assessments, detailed surveys and ground observations by trained personnel. Summaries of special projects, meetings, presentations and publications undertaken by MFLNRO entomologists, pathologists and their associates are also included. Forested land in BC was damaged by a wide variety of forest health agents in 2012 with 6.7 million hectares affected. The mountain pine beetle outbreak peaked at 10.1 million hectares in 2007 and damage has steadily declined since then, but this beetle still attacked over 3 million hectares across BC in 2012. Very little damage occurred in the central portion of BC where the initial outbreak occurred and most of the susceptible pine is gone, but infestation expansions continued at a decreased pace in the far northern and southern areas of the province. Conversely, other bark beetle activity increased somewhat. Western balsam bark beetle damage more than doubled to 722,429 ha though mortality was primarily rated as trace. Spruce beetle infestations also doubled, with the majority of the attack located in the eastern third of the Cariboo Region. Douglas-fir beetle attacked 21,001 ha throughout host stands in BC this year, with the largest increases occurring in the Cariboo Region. Intensity of damage dropped substantially though for both spruce and Douglas-fir beetle affected areas. Damage caused by deciduous defoliators continued to be prevalent across the province this year. Aspen leaf miner infestations