Integrated Pest Management in Southern Pine Forests

R.C. Thatcher - Program Manager, Integrated Pest Management RD&A Program for Bark Beetles of Southern Pines, Pineville, LA.,
G.N. Mason - Project Leader, Silvicultural Options for Gypsy Moth, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Morgantown, WV, and
G.D. Hertel - Program Manager for Gypsy Moth Research, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Broomall, PA.
Mason and Hertel were Research Coordinator and Applications Coordinator for the IPM Program when this work was conducted.

Integrated Pest Management Handbook, USDA, Forest Service, Agriculture Handbook 650, April 1986.

In 1980, the Forest Service and the Cooperative State Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture initiated the Integrated Pest Management Research, Development, and Applications Program for Bark Beetles of Southern Pines. This research/applications effort concentrates on pine bark beetles and associated tree diseases in the South. This is one in a series of Integrated Pest Management handbooks.

Introduction

Several characteristics of southern forests and forest management practices have shaped the need for and development of integrated pest management (IPM) systems in the South. The forests of the region are dynamic, and site and stand conditions are highly variable. Growing seasons are long (220-270 days) and favor the rapid growth of trees and the buildup of pest populations. Most pests have a high reproductive potential, have many overlapping generations each season, and often two or more species may be closely associated with one another in the same tree and forest situations. These conditions dictate that resource managers and landowners recognize damage potentials, evaluate their effects, and make control decisions in a timely fashion.

To make sound decisions, the manager must have reliable information that considers alternative means of maintaining pest-caused damage at tolerable levels (according to management objectives) on a continuing, long-term basis (Waters and Stark 1980). These alternatives may include treatment tactics aimed either at manipulation of the forest or directly at target pest organisms. In both cases, the manager is faced with an assessment of the interacting influence of these activities on forest conditions, levels of pest activity, management objectives, and costs and returns of doing business. IPM is designed to provide the information needed to deal with multiple pest problems under a variety of management situations in a manner that is in harmony with forest management objectives.

The need for better information based on understanding and consideration of biological, economic, social, and environmental processes provides the basis for integrated pest management as a part of overall forest management. Hence, IPM may be viewed as a means of maintaining destructive agents at tolerable levels in management situations by the planned use of a variety of preventive or suppressive tactics and strategies that are ecologically and economically acceptable. It is implicit that these actions be fully integrated into the total resources management process in both planning and operations. IPM, therefore, must be geared to the entire lifespan of the tree crop and requires that we have a basic understanding of how the system works in a forest setting and of the interrelationships among its component parts.

This handbook is organized in two sections. The first describes the IPM concept as it applies to the management of insects and diseases in southern pine forest. Pest management considerations are discussed as they relate to each of several tree growth stages. The second section is organized by specific IPM components and outlines the technology available for preventing or reducing losses caused by insects (southern pine beetle, IPS engraver beetle, black turpentine beetle, reproduction weevils, pine tip moth, Texas leaf-cutting ant) and diseases (annosus root rot, fusiform rust, and littleleaf disease) in pulpwood- and sawtimber-age pine stands. Although many of the practices ascribed to the IPM process place heavy emphasis on intensive forest management, many of the technologies (and certainly the IPM concept) can be applied to the 70 percent or more of the forest land in the South that is in small, private, nonindustrial ownerships.

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