• Webb, F.E.
  Canadian Department of Agriculture
  
• Cameron, D.G.
  Canadian Department of Agriculture
  
• Macdonald, D.R.
  Canadian Department of Agriculture
  

The need for intensive survey coverage of the current spruce budworm outbreak became apparent in 1952 with the commencement of large-scale spraying operations. In that year, the outbreak was severe over about 5,000 square miles, much of it in the least accessible parts of the Province. In addition to the need for surveying the annual extensions of infestation, detailed information on the degree of hazard in older presalvage operations. A comparison of data of this sort from sprayed and unsprayed areas was also required for assessing the immediate results of the spraying programme. Aerial surveying techniques for this purpose have been described in Part IV of this series; the present report describes the organization and design of ground surveys of defoliation, damage and prospects for continued attack as indicated by egg counts.

Some of the organizational and supervisory problems involved in the three years surveys can be gauged from the following statistics. The area surveyed by staff assigned to studies of aerial spraying covers about 8,000 square miles of the least accessible part of northern New Brunswick. The work each year has been completed in about six weeks, beginning August 1, using crews of seasonal assistants totaling about 60 men. Sampling crews traveled about 12,000 miles in 1955 to collect foliage and to obtain defoliation data from a total of 866 survey locations and 85 permanent plots. This involved a detailed examination of nearly 2,500 balsam fir branches. Data from an additional 205 survey locations sampled by staff of other projects were also used in the preparation of maps and assessment of hazard for the northern half of the Province.

As far as practicable, sampling methods used for this project have been designed in accordance with existing techniques developed during the course of other spruce budworm investigations in New Brunswick, namely, those of the Forest Insect Survey and Green River Project. The purpose of this co-ordination is to permit close integration of all budworm studies in the region. Similar methods have also been adopted by staff of the Quebec Laboratory in surveys undertaken in the lower St. Lawrence and Gaspé Peninsula.