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The article discusses the role of the aviation firm Western Canada Airways Limited (WCA) in a series of 1929-1930 aerial insecticide dusting operations to prevent damage to Douglas fir trees in British Columbia (BC) by the defoliating insect known as the western hemlock looper. WCA used Boeing B-1E flying boats for the project. Details on the insecticide calcium arsenate and the design of the dispersal system used in the operation are also presented.

Abstract: We tested a new formulation of verbenone, an antiaggregation pheromone of the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), for area-wide protection of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon) stands in the western United States. Helicopter applications of verbenone-releasing laminated flakes were made at the rate of 370g of active ingredient/ha to two sites, one in California and one in Idaho, during summer 2005. Each site consisted of five 20.23-ha treated plots and five matching 20.23-ha untreated plots. We assessed D. ponderosae flight into study plots using traps baited with aggregation pheromones and we tallied D. ponderosae attack rates on P. contorta trees in treated and control plots before and after application. There were no significant differences between numbers of D. ponderosae trapped on treated and control plots. However, a significantly smaller proportion of P. contorta trees was attacked in treated plots than in control plots at both sites; the attack rate in untreated stands was roughly three times that of treated stands in both California and Idaho, even at this low application rate. Furthermore, attack rate in 2004 was a significant explanatory variable for the response in 2005 regardless of treatment in both California and Idaho. There was no significant treatment effect at either site on attraction of Temnochila chlorodia (Coleoptera: Trogositidae) Mannerheim, a key predator of D. ponderosae, to the prey aggregation pheromone. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Two aerial applications of microencapsulated pheromone were conducted on five 20.2 ha plots to disrupt western pine shoot borer (Eucosma sonomana Kearfott) and ponderosa pine tip moth (Rhyacionia zozana (Kearfott); Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) orientation to pheromones and oviposition in ponderosa pine plantations in 2002 and 2004. The first application was made at 29.6 g active ingredient (AI)/ha, and the second at 59.3 g AI/ha. Baited sentinel traps were used to assess disruption of orientation by both moth species toward pheromones, and E. sonomana infestation levels were tallied from 2001 to 2004. Treatments disrupted orientation by both species for several weeks, with the first lasting 35 days and the second for 75 days. Both applications reduced infestation by E. sonomana, but the lower application rate provided greater absolute reduction, perhaps because prior infestation levels were higher in 2002 than in 2004. Infestations in treated plots were reduced by two-thirds in both years, suggesting that while increasing the application rate may prolong disruption, it may not provide greater proportional efficacy in terms of tree protection. The incidence of infestations even in plots with complete disruption suggests that treatments missed some early emerging females or that mated females immigrated into treated plots; thus operational testing should be timed earlier in the season and should comprise much larger plots. In both years, moths emerged earlier than reported previously, indicating that disruption programs should account for warmer climates in timing of applications. The AIs we tested are behaviorally active for 13 other species of Rhyacionia and six other species of Eucosma, so the approach may have wide application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers news related to the Vancouver Island Section of the Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada (CIF/IFC). Among the topics discussed are the excursion to Port Alberni, British Columbia to tour the flying tankers located there. The author reports that the aircraft are used by the Coulson Group as water bombers that help combat forest fires in the British Columbia and Pacific Northwest areas. The tour was conducted by a former crewman and the group was allowed to explore the planes at will. The group also visited the McLean Mill, the only operating steam mill in Canada, on the same trip. It is reported that the Section also held its annual Beer and Chili Cook-off in November 2007.

An introduction is presented which discusses various reports within the issue on topics including forestry aviation, historical archaeology, and aviator John Joseph Gilmore.