WVII interviews Wagner for second installment of spruce budworm report

Robert Wagner, the Henry W. Saunders Distinguished Professor in Forestry at the University of Maine and director of the Cooperative Forestry Research Unit, spoke with WVII (Channel 7) for Part II of the report, “The return of the spruce budworm.” Described as the most damaging forest insect in North America, the spruce budworm is already killing trees in Canada and is expected to spread to Maine in the next few years. During the last infestation from 1970 until 1985, the Maine Forest Service estimates the insect killed between 20 million and 25 million cords of fir and spruce worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “The one thing that we are very sure about, is that it is going to occur and we can only hope that it’s not as severe or we can be prepared,” said Wagner, a member of the Maine Spruce Budworm Task Force. He added that researchers have a much better understanding of this outbreak than the last, but that changes in Maine’s paper-making industry could play a role in how the state responds. “The mill closures will have a large effect on our abilities to respond to the budworm, one of the features of the mill closure is a reduction in the demand for spruce and fir,” he said. Wagner also was featured in Part I, along with Jim Dill, a pest management specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.