Forest Addresses Budworm Epidemic

A timber sale this fall will begin to address the Spruce Budworm epidemic on the Clark’s Fork District in the Shoshone National Forest.
Spruce budworms, which eventually metamorphose into gray moths, are native to Wyoming, but about every 20 years populations reach epidemic proportions. US Forest Service Entomologist Kurt Allen says the last major outbreak on the Shoshone was in the mid-1980s, and normally an outbreak lasts only one or two years. However, the current infestation on the Shoshone began about six years ago, and has impacted about 33,000 acres on the forest.

Allen says the first vegetation treatments are set to begin this fall through a 580-acre timber sale.