Wagner Warns of Spruce Budworm Outbreak in BDN Editorial

Robert Wagner, a forestry professor at the University of Maine, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for the editorial “A devastating infestation of spruce budworms is coming — and we need to be ready.” Wagner, who is director of the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit that was formed in 1975 during the last spruce budworm outbreak, calls the state’s upcoming infestation a slow-moving hurricane and estimates the pest will start destroying forest stands in northern Maine within the next two to four years. He said UMaine, the Maine Forest Service and landowners with the Maine Forest Products Council are putting together a disaster preparedness plan that will identify the anticipated level of the outbreak and how the state can respond.