In 1977, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Canadian Department of the Environment agreed to pool the expertise and facilities of both countries; together they embarked on a 6-year research and development program in 1978. Objectives were to design and evaluate economical and environmentally acceptable strategies to suppress the budworms and to manage forests susceptible to them. Part of the planning was to assure that new information and technology would be available for application by forest managers as soon as possible.

So that the information would be in forms most useful to forest managers, administrators in the western segment of the program (CANUSA-rü/est) appointed a working group (see appendix 1) to plan the distribution of research results to all appropriate audiences. Meeting annually, the group identified the major audiences and developed a framework for reaching them. A major part of the effort is a series of three books. "Western Spruce Budworm" is a synthesis of current knowledge about the insect and its hosts. It summarizes most of the known information on the western spruce budworm and provides background for the recommendations contained in two management books: "Managing Trees and Stands Susceptible to Western Spruce Budworm" and this book.

Designed for forest planners and policy makers, this book summarizes what has been accomplished during the program to provide better protection of forests against outbreaks of the western spruce budworm and how the results may be used. Because the approach to forest protection–integrated pest management–is relatively new, procedural, structural, and legislative issues and constraints are also discussed.