Description:
Insects and diseases have the potential of seriously affecting timber
associated resources on eastside forests within the foreseeable future. Within
the past decade, lodgepole pine mortality attributed to the mountain pine
beetle has totaled tens of millions of trees on the Gallatin and Beaverhead
National Forests (NF) alone. In that same time, growth loss resulting from
western spruce budworm defoliation has been about 90 million cubic feet.
Growth loss to dwarf mistletoe for the past decade has been nearly 68 million
cubic feet. Root disease-caused losses have likewise been significant.