• Maine Forest Service - Department of Conservation
  

The 1983 project was the second conducted under the 1981 Spruce Budworm Management Act in which landowners voluntarily submit acreage needing treatment for inclusion in a 5-year protection program.

Planning for the 1983 Spruce Budworm Suppression Project began in July, 1982. At that time the Budworm Survey and Assessment Unit identified areas with a potential for extreme and high budworm hazard.

These areas were plotted on the USGS topographic maps and provided to landowners in November. Spray blocks were then designed using data received from the landowners and the Survey and Assessment Unit. Contract specifications were changed to reduce costs without reducing the efficacy or environmental safety of the project.

Project Headquarters opened in Presque Isle on May 16, 1983. Other bases were set up for operation by the third week of May. Cool, wet weather retarded early budworm development. Therefore, no blocks were scheduled to be sprayed until May 23, and actual spraying began on May 25 out of Old Town airport. Damp, cool weather continued to hamper spray operations in southeastern sections of the state early in the project. Later, a period of very hot, hazy weather further hindered spraying in most areas. Conditions improved by the second week of June and all airports finished their operations by the morning of June 23.