• USDA Forest Service
  

The Maine Department of Conservation, Bureau of Forestry, has requested USDA Forest Service financial assistance for a cooperative spruce budworm suppression project ln 1980. Assistance in protection is requested for portions of the countless of Aroostook, Piscataquis, Somerset, Penobscot, Washington, Franklin, and Hancock.

This Final Environmental Impact Statement documents the environmental analysis of the proposed project. In the analysis, six alternatives for USDA Forest Service assistance were identified: Biological insecticides on 1.66 million acres; insecticide treatment on 1.66 million acres with initiation of integrated protection management (IPM); biological insecticides on 250,000 acres with initiation of IPM; and no Federal financial assistance.

The alternative selected by the USDA Forest Service is "No Federal financial assistance for Maine's proposal to control the spruce budworm by treating 1.66 million acres with insecticides of 1980." Selection of this alternative reflects the USDA Forest Service judgement that Federal financial assistance for chemical insecticide application to control the spruce budworm in Maine should be discontinued and that the costs of insecticide applications should now be borne by the landowners. This decision by the Forest Service should not be interpreted as a withdrawal of Federal support for necessary chemical insecticide treatments for spruce budworm control nor does it preclude the State from applying for other types of Federal financial or technical assistance for the spruce budworm which do not involve operational use of insecticides in 1980.