• Fraver, Shawn
  Department of Natural Sciences, Mid Sweden University
  
• Seymour, Robert S.
  Department of Forest Ecosystem Science, University of Maine
  
• Speer, James H.
  Department of Geography, Geology and Anthropology, Indiana State University
  
• White, Alan S.
  Department of Forest Ecosystem Science, University of Maine
  

Using dendrochronological analyses, we reconstructed a 300 year history of eastern spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.)) outbreaks in northern interior Maine. By analyzing radial growth patterns from the budworm host, red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.), and nonhost, northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.), we identified five outbreaks beginning ca. 1709, 1762, 1808, 1914, and 1976, all of which have been documented from eastern Canada. Differences in forest types, and associated stand dynamics, between the regions may explain the longer return intervals, and consequently the absence of these three outbreaks in Maine. Results also indicate that small, slow-growing trees exhibit a budworm signal very similar to that of overstory trees, once tree-ring series have been properly standardized.