Public meetings to discuss Douglas-fir tussock moth outbreak

COEUR d'ALENE - The Idaho Department of Lands Forest Health Program will hold two public meetings for forest landowners to discuss the outbreak of Douglas-fir tussock moth in North Idaho.

The Douglas-fir tussock moth is a native forest insect and needle feeding caterpillar. It is a major defoliator of grand fir and Douglas-fir trees.

In 2011, the IDL, Washington State Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service detected new areas with defoliation in Idaho and Washington. Kootenai, Benewah and Latah counties in Idaho are affected.

The IDL will hold two public meetings in Plummer, to provide affected forest landowners information and management assistance options.

The first meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Lakeside Elementary School, 1345 E. St. The second meeting will be held on Feb. 25, at 10 a.m. at the Plummer Community Center, 520 C St.

Last summer, the Idaho Department of Lands, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service detected new areas with defoliation in Idaho and Washington. Kootenai, Benewah and Latah counties in Idaho and Spokane, Columbia and Garfield counties in Washington are affected.

Through aerial surveys, the agencies mapped defoliated forests across approximately 68,000 acres in North Idaho, more than 1,600 acres in eastern Spokane County, and 7,800 acres in Columbia and Garfield counties.

The defoliated area in North Idaho has increased significantly from the 8,500 acres mapped in 2010, and the affected area in Spokane County has more than doubled since 2010.

Areas with defoliation in Idaho include the Signal Point area south of Post Falls, much of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation in the vicinity of Plummer and Worley, and the McCroskey State Park area of Benewah and Latah Counties.

Ground surveys for new egg masses in Benewah County, the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation and the McCroskey State Park areas indicate that defoliation in those areas may spread and increase in severity in the summer of 2012.

In the spring of 2012, the agencies will analyze egg masses collected throughout the affected areas in both states to identify locations where there may be enough virus to cause a collapse of the caterpillar population.