Aerial Overview 2015C.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 2015- 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 Kevin Buxton: Larch needle blight near Birk Creek, Kamloops TSA 2015 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, 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 ................................................................................................................. 9 Mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae ..................................................................... 9 Neodiprion sawfly, Neodiprion annulus contortae .................................................................. 13 Pine needle sheathminer, Zelleria haimbachi ............................................................................ 13 Dothistroma needle blight, Dothistroma septosporum .............................................................. 15 Comandra blister rust, Cronartium comandrae ...................................................................... 16 White pine blister rust, Cronartium ribicola ........................................................................... 16 Damaging Agents of Douglas-fir ....................................................................................................... 17 Douglas-fir beetle, Dendroctonus pseudotsugae ...................................................................... 17 Western spruce budworm, Choristoneura occidentalis .......................................................... 19 Laminated root disease, Phellinus sulphurascens .................................................................. 21 Douglas-fir tussock moth, Orgyia pseudotsugata ................................................................... 22 Damaging Agents of Spruce ............................................................................................................... 22 Spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis ................................................................................... 22 Green spruce aphid, Elatobium abietinum ................................................................................ 25 Damaging Agents of True Fir ............................................................................................................. 26 Western balsam bark beetle, Dryocoetes confusus ................................................................. 26 Two-year-cycle budworm, Choristoneura biennis .................................................................. 28 Balsam woolly adelgid, Adelges piceae ..................................................................................... 29 Balsam fir tip blight, Delphinella spp. ....................................................................................... 30 Damaging Agents of Hemlock ........................................................................................................... 30 Western blackheaded budworm, Acleris gloverana ................................................................ 30 Western hemlock looper, Lambdina fiscellaria lugubrosa ....................................................... 31 Damaging Agents of Larch ................................................................................................................. 31 Larch needle blight, Hypodermella laricis ................................................................................ 31 Larch casebearer, Coleophora laricella ................................................................................... 32 Damaging Agents of Cedar ........................................................................................................... 32 Yellow-cedar decline ........................................................................................................... 32 Damaging Agents of Deciduous Trees ........................................................................................ 33 Aspen (serpentine) leaf miner, Phyllocristis populiella ..................................................... 33 Forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria ....................................................................... 35 Bruce spanworm, Operophtera bruceata ............................................................................. 36 Venturia blight, Venturia spp. ............................................................................................ 37 Gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar ............................................................................................ 38 Birch leafminer, Fenusa pusilla ........................................................................................... 39 Cottonwood leaf rust, Melampsora occidentalis ................................................................... 40 Aspen decline ...................................................................................................................... 40 Satin moth, Leucoma salicis .................................................................................................. 40 Damaging Agents of Multiple Host Species .............................................................................. 41 Abiotic injury and associated forest health factors ........................................................ 41 Animal damage ................................................................................................................... 46 Armillaria root disease, Armillaria ostoyae .......................................................................... 47 Miscellaneous damaging agents ................................................................................................... 48 Forest Health Projects .................................................................................................................... 49 Forest Health Meetings/Workshops/Presentations ................................................................ 61 Forest Health Publications ............................................................................................................ 69 SUMMARY The 2015 Summary of Forest Health Conditions in British Columbia (BC) is a compilation of forest health information collected from the 2015 provincial aerial overview surveys (AOS) and other BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (FLNRO) sources. The AOS data is the primary source for reporting damaging agents, but this material is augmented by some detailed helicopter surveys, insect population assessments, forest health surveys and ground observations by trained personnel. Summaries of special projects, meetings, presentations and publications conducted by FLNRO entomologists, pathologists and their associates in 2015 are also included in the final sections. An estimated 89% of the province was flown during the AOS this year, resulting in 5.1 million hectares (ha) of damage being mapped. These disturbances were caused by a wide variety of forest health factors affecting many different host tree species on forested lands in BC. Of damage visible during the surveys, bark beetle mortality continued to affect the most hectares provincially. Western balsam bark beetle infestations led this category with 2.3 million hectares of damage, though intensity of attack continued to be low (98% trace to light). The mountain pine beetle outbreak continued to wane for the sixth consecutive year to 326,477 ha. Spruce beetle damage declined after a sharp increase in 2014 to 194,050 ha. This reduction was however mainly an artefact of large, lightly infested disturbances delineated in central BC last year being replaced with smaller, more accurately drawn areas of damage with higher intensities. For the third consecutive year Douglas-fir beetle attack increased to 47,628 ha, primarily in the Cariboo Region. Damage by defoliators was a third of last year with 1.6 million hectares affected provincially. Pests of deciduous trees (in particular trembling aspen) continued to dominate. However, the greatest decrease occurred in aspen leaf miner infestations, which dropped to 942,085 ha.