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Crater Lake's Bark Beetle Battle: 1925-1934 - Historical Account of Pest Outbreaks & Manag, Study notes of Forestry

An historical account of the battle against bark beetles in Crater Lake National Park from 1925 to 1934. It details the involvement of the National Park Service, Forest Service, and USDA Bureau of Entomology, the organization of the project, the ecological implications of the outbreak, and the long-term results of direct control measures. Keywords: Bark beetles, Crater Lake National Park, control, Bureau of Entomology, Forest Service, insect outbreaks.

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United States
Department of
Agriculture
Forest Service
Pacific Northwest
Research Station
General Technical
Report
PNW-GTR-259
A
pril 1987
The Battle Against Bark
Beetles in Crater Lake
National Park: 1925-34
Boyd E. Wickman
I
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Download Crater Lake's Bark Beetle Battle: 1925-1934 - Historical Account of Pest Outbreaks & Manag and more Study notes Forestry in PDF only on Docsity!

United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station

General Technical Report PNW-GTR- April 1987

The Battle Against Bark

Beetles in Crater Lake

National Park: 1925-

Boyd E. Wickman

I

This file was created by scanning the printed publication. Text errors identified by the software have been corrected; however, some errors may remain.

BOYD E. WICKMAN is a research entomologist, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850

Author

The epidemic apparently started 10 years earlier in National Forest stands northeast of the park near Diamond Lake and spread slowly southward killing from 50 to 90 percent of the stand as it progressed.^3

In the National Parks, the commercial value of a tree species was irrelevant. Trees provided cover and scenic backdrop and the policy at that time was to protect them from fire or insects at almost all costs. As we shall see later in the story, it was a losing battle. And though the beetles essentially won the war, the lessons learned helped bring on a more ecologically enlightened management style decades later.

The purpose of this story is to point out how foresters, land managers, and entomol- ogists reacted to an insect outbreak in Crater Lake National Park during the early 1900s, the lessons they learned, the development of new technology, and how les- sons from the past have helped to shape our current pest management policies. Neither the Forest Service nor the Park Service changed or curtailed their bark beetle control policies overnight. The changes took many years and came about after many experiences similar to the one chronicled here.

Crater Lake was not the only National Park with insect problems. Several others also requested funds to control insects at the time, but the situation at Crater Lake may have been the most serious because of the importance of lodgepole pine as forest cover and the intensity and magnitude of the beetle outbreak. Therefore in late July 1924, Patterson, F.P. Keen, J.M. Miller, and F.G. Craighead of the Bureau of Ento- mology made a survey of the beetle outbreak. In a report to H.C. Albright, National Park Service Director, Patterson pointed out the gravity of the situation (see footnote

  1. and requested $5,000 to start the campaign. It so happened that in 1925 the emer- gency bill for the U.S. Department of the Interior provided $25,000 for the suppres- sion of insect epidemics in National Parks. This was the first specific appropriation for insect control work in National Parks, and Crater Lake got its share.^4

(^3) Patterson, J.E. Aug. 4, 1924. Memorandum for Mr. H.C. Albright on the fQrest insect situation in the Crater Lake National Park. Ashland, OR: Forest Insect Field Station. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

(^4) Miller, J.M. Mar. 1, 1925. National Park Service gets into the game. Western Division Newsletter. Northfolk, CA: Forest Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology: 4. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

Activities in 1925–

- The First Year

The control project in that first year needs to be described in some detail because it set a pattern for future events.^5 To do that, a little must also be known about the technical leader of the project Assistant Entomologist, John E. Patterson, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, field station in Ashland, Oregon. 6 John Patterson joined the Bureau of Entomology, Division of Forest Insect Investigations, at its Ashland field station in 1914. Before transferring to the Bureau of Entomology as an entomological ranger, he was a guard at Crater National Forest. He had a varied career earlier as a photographer, surveyor's helper, railroad signal installer, and salesman of packing house products. He was a well-liked and highly competent self-taught entomologist. He published papers on several bark beetle and insect defoliator problems. He was in charge of the Ashland field station from 1921 to 1924 and served as assistant station leader of the Bureau of Entomology's Berkeley laboratory during the last 8 years of his career. He retired in July 1950 and died on July 31, 1962, in Ashland (see footnote 6).

In the 1924 survey report, Patterson recommended that the large, intense outbreak north of the lake be ignored... He pointed out that almost 80 percent of the trees had already been killed so efforts to protect stands from future losses should be centered south of the lake in the following areas: south of Wheeler Creek near the east en- trance, between Sand and Wheeler Creeks, in the Pinnacles, south of Wheeler between Lost Creek Ranger Station and Kerr Notch, in Munson Valley, and in Anna Springs. 7 These areas totaled about 1,920 acres (see footnote 3). Control crews moved into the park on May 25, 1925. The first camp was established at the Ranger Station at the east entrance (no longer inexistence). It was difficult to move the crews and equipment into this area because of late persistence of snow 3 to 6 feet deep. Consequently the first few days were spent opening the roads so that trucks could bring in the crews and supplies. Camps .were later established at the Lost Creek Ranger Station on May 27 and at Government Camp near Munson Valley on June 24. Control work was completed by July 11 with 4,291 trees treated. Average diameter at breast height of the treated trees was 14 inches (see footnote 5).

(^5) Patterson, J.E. Jan. 12, 1926. Report of the 1925 control work in the Crater Lake Park, Oregon. Stanford University, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture. 8 p. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850. (^6) Wickman, B_E. 1988 (Spring 1987). Early forest insect research in the Pacific Northwest: the Ashland Field Station, 1912 to 1925. Oregon Historical Quarterly: 27-48. (^7) Anna Springs and Anna Creek are now called "Annie."

Events From 1926

Through 1928

After surveys were made in September 1925, Patterson reported that the results of the work were good for most of the units; Kerr Notch was the worst area with 200 newly infested trees. He stated that (5eefootnote 5),

while the results of this first year's control work were very successful in breaking the epidemic, this reinfestation will, unless removed, soon again become epidemic. To prevent this and secure permanent results from the work. already done the following recommendations should be carried out in the spring of 1926.

Thus began a series of rosy proclamations about winning the war against the beetles. The recommendations suggested that about 500 to 700 infested trees would be found the next spring and $1,000 would be needed to treat them. Some infestation of western pine beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis) in large ponderosa pines. (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) near the south entrance were also noted with a recom- mendation to treat about 200 trees at a cost of $1,000. Thus, for a measly $2, Patterson stated, "The proposed work should not only maintain the beneficial results of the initial control work, but also should accomplish the practical elimination of all infestations in the south half of the Park" (see footnote 5). Did it? Let us follow the course of .the battle.

In February 1926, Park Superintendent Thomson wrote a disturbing letter to Patterson. The letter acknowledged the recommendation...for $2,000 needed for spring 1926 control work but said that the funds could not be released until after July 1, 1926 (the new fiscal year). The letter ended, "...if it should be too late then to under- take effective control measures, the money will be available for use the following spring (1927) when insect infestations can be treated in time.”^10 Patterson replied immediately that he was perplexed over this delay in allotting funds that he thought were arranged. He saw much good work of 1925 going for naught if the remaining infestations could not be cleaned out in spring 1926 before beetles emerged from infested trees. In the meantime F.C. Craighead, Chief of Forest Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology, Washington, DC, started lobbying the top echelons of the Federal bureaucracy. He came up with $1,600 that was intended for Grand Canyon National Park (see footnote 10). This, combined with $400 left over from other work at Crater Lake, was enough to proceed as planned. New problems arose, however, once the control work started. Instead of several hundred infested trees as estimated in 1925, there were several thousand. This necessitated control work into August and September at Anna Creek and Munson Valley (see footnote 10). This was not good news because it meant treating well into the period when beetles were in flight and making new attacks. Spotters could miss many new attacks. The only good news was that the Park Service allotted $8,000 to Crater Lake for fiscal year 1927, minus the $1,600 hijacked from Grand Canyon. But, in the fall when Patterson and Thomson tried to find out exactly how much they had remaining to use in their

(^10) Unpublished letters on Crater lake mountain pine beetle control projects 1925-34. On file with: B.E. Wickman,. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

spring 1927 work, they found the dollars had been slipping away to other parks–– Yellowstone for one (see footnote 10). The year-end report by Patterson showed 6,805 trees treated (43 were ponderosa pine infested with western pine beetle) at a cost of $9,645.16.^11 He claimed a reduction of 86 percent in the number of infested trees on all the old units worked in 1925, but new infestations kept cropping up in fall 1926. An area around Crater Peak had 2,500 newly infested trees, and an area east of the entrance in the Crater National Forest continued to be a trouble spot. Patterson claimed that they continued as a source of new infestation for the lodge- pole pine stands in the park. Patterson further surmised that the newly infested area at Crater Peak and the trees found in Munson Valley resulted from beetle infestations north of the lake. He felt that this source would no longer be troublesome because most of the trees in that area were dead by 1926 (see footnote 11). He optimistically requested only $2,500 to $3,000 for control work in 1927. Patterson was concerned about the reinvasion of areas in 1926, but after examining the old infestations north of the lake he was convinced (see footnote 11)

...that the progress or "drift" of the annual infestations had been consist- ently in a south-westerly direction. This fact was further supported by ex- amination made in the new infested lodgepole stands in the west-central part of the Park. These stands have only recently been invaded and the drift of the beetles infesting them has also been toward the southwest. This is shown by the fact that the first trees attacked are on the northeast exposure of the infested areas.

The discovery of this drift in the Crater Lake Park was of significance, because the control areas and the lodgepole pine stands in the west- central part just described, are in its path. Further evidence supporting this suspected cause of the re-infestation was the fact that the last trees attacked in the old areas north-east of the lake are located on their south- western border and that these places represent the last stand of the beetles in this locality. These old areas were abandoned in 1926, because all the lodgepole in them had been killed. The flight of 1926 represented the last remnant of their beetle population and this remnant was forced to migrate to living stands of lodgepole. One of the last epidemic centers in these old areas abandoned by the beetles in 1926 is located on the rim of the lake near Round Top, (see map). This point is directly north-east of the Munson Valley region where the greatest re-infestation of the control areas occurred in 1926. This re-infestation is believed to have been caused by an invasion of beetles migrating from these old epidemic centers.

(^11) Patterson, J.E. Jan. 24, 1927. Report of the 1926 control work in the Crater Lake Park, Oregon. Stanford University, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture. 12 p. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

One interesting innovation occurred in the annals of beetle control work in 1927. Because of deep snow at Anna Creek, men and camps were transported success- fully by tractors towing sleds. Also in 1927, the adjacent Crater National Forest treated 4,000 trees on the east edge of the park in a show of cooperation; Patterson felt there was little threat from that source in the future (see footnote 13). He did recommend that the Forest Service clean up some small infestations near Sand Creek in 1928. There was one disquieting note in the 1927 report:

Following the control work of 1927 only 545 infested trees have devel- oped on the control areas. These trees represent the total beetle infesta- tion at the present time. The future infestation on the control areas will depend upon the development of these 545 broods. It is not probable that they can soon increase to a point that will again menace the present stands (see footnote 13).

This seems like a risky statement given the history of the outbreak to this time.

In 1928, the Crater National Forest under Administrative Assistant Lee Brown carried out control operations on Sand Creek and north of Sand Creek between Cave Creek and the National Park boundary.^14 Apparently, neither Patterson nor anyone else from the Bureau of Entomology trained the Forest Service staff or worked with them. According to Brown's report, the crew was trained by Forest Examiner A.J. Jaenicke who was in charge of forest insect work in the Pacific Northwest Region. Bureau of Entomology personnel were probably not involved because of the press of business in .the park. Brown complained about the lack of experience of the spotters used to locate infested trees (see footnote 14). The trees were treated by the sun-curing or solar heat method advocated by Patterson, so he must have had some exchange with the Forest Service, perhaps in 1927. The Forest Service crews treated 1, trees at a cost of $1000._ They unfortunately ran out of funds before they completed the work. A few small groups of trees were not treated south of Sand Creek Canyon; and about 200 trees were not rolled during the solar treating, which meant that about two-thirds of the beetle brood survived and emerged. The result was that Brown recommended cleaning up the areas worked in 1927 and 1928 and estimated this would cost $1,500 in 1929 (see footnote 14).

Patterson made a fall survey in 1928 and said "...there had been a considerable infiltration of beetles from north of the Lake, as well as a build-up of the infestation locally during the year when no work was done.”^15 So the battle was not over quite yet.

(^14) Brown, Lee P. June 16, 1928. Report on Sand Creek beetle control project, season 1928, Crater National Forest. Medford, OR: Crater National Forest. 7 p. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

(^15) Patterson, J.E. [n_d.].Entomological report of the insect control project, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, season spring 1929. 2 p. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

Events of 1929 and

For the beetle battlers, 1929 was a very bad year. Thousands of lodgepole pine became infested in 1928 from what Patterson described as continued infiltration of beetles drifting from north of the lake, even though ve.ry few live trees were sup- posedly left in that area. Also in some areas, two broods developed thereby produc- ing two sets of infested trees instead ,of the usual one (see footnote 15). Altogether, 23,239 trees were treated across 9,000 acres at a cost of $17,038.91. The Crater National Forest treated 8,199 trees at a cost of $2,000 (see footnote 15). The fall 1928 survey, according to Chief Ranger William C. Godfrey, actually estimated that only 4,500 trees would have to be treated in 1929. 16 This was a 75-percent under- estimate when tallies were made at the end of the 1929 control work. Godfrey men- tioned that the crews again faced snow depths of 6 feet or more when they tried to set up camps in late April. Again they resorted to tractors to drag camp equipment and crews to Anna Creek. The most disturbing part of Godfrey's report was that they had to leave 4,070 trees untreated (see footnote 16).

Brown was again in charge of Forest Service control work in 1929 and his report makes some interesting statements not include in other reports 17 Brown thought the, smoke from slash fires along the road attracted more beetles to the roadside area in 1929, and he mentioned that 1929 was unseasonably dry and favorable to the beetles. He was in charge of control operations in the park (upper Sand Creek) under J.E. Patterson. This is the first indication that Forest Service crews worked within park boundaries. Brown also made the first mention of possible beneficial effects of opening, a stand during logging, as follows (see footnote 17):

At Mr. Jaenicke's suggestion an examination was made of sale cuttings in the lodgepole pine in this area. An examination of 70 acres-cut over by the Pelican Bay Lbr. Co. for ties in 1925 disclosed two old beetle infested trees and two infested trees whereas adjoining ground not cut over showed groups of from 4-20 trees which had been or were infested. It may be that opening the stand increases beetle resistance of the remaining trees. Dur- ing 1929 cutting was made by the Algoma Lbr. Co. in lodgepole pine near Boundary Butte. This would offer an excellent chance for experimental study of beetle activity in cut over areas should the District Office or the Bureau of Entomology care to undertake such work.

Unfortunately no followup studies were done.

(^16) Godfrey, Wm. C. [n.d.], Summary of work done on insect control project in Crater Lake National Park, season of 1929. 3 p. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, For- estry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401.' Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850. (^17) Brown, Lee P. [n.d.]. Report on Sand Creek beetle control project for season of 1929. Crater National Forest. 10 p. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station; Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

Brown also had an interesting antidote for bears, in camp:

Keen concluded that treatment reduced tree losses from pine beetles on areas treated and it reduced fire hazard, but that it had failed to exterminate the beetles in the park. He further recognized that as long as beetle outbreaks were widespread and surrounding the park there would be continued reinvasion of treated areas from these sources. Keen pointed out that protecting trees solely for aesthetic value was not appropriate because, in the course of stand succession, other species of conifers would replace the dead lodgepole. Here he erred because many of the infested stands were already climax lodgepole and would not be replaced by fir or hemlock. Keen thought that reducing the fire hazard was the only justification for spending such large sums of money on beetle control. He did not comprehend, however, that dead trees create fuel for subsequent wildfire, which initiated the development of new lodgepole pine stands, thus perpetuating this fire-maintained species.

Keen presented three plans for consideration by the Park managers (see footnote 18).

Plan 1. Intensive control work on all the areas infested at the present time, with the idea of eliminating the beetles from the Park areas and saving the remaining lodgepole forests.

To stand a reasonable chance of succeeding, this plan would have to take into account all the adjacent infestation within a radius of twenty-five or thirty miles (since it has been established beyond a reasonable doubt that these beetles may travel for such distances). This would involve the tre- mendous infestations north of the Lake on the Deschutes and Umpqua National Forests and require the cooperation of the Forest Service in con- trolling all such infestations in the general vicinity, while within the Park boundaries alone 25,000 to 30,000 acres of lodgepole would have to be combed carefully for infestations and all infested trees treated. To attempt this would require an expenditure of at least $25,000 of Park funds for the fiscal year 1930 and at least half this amount for several years to come. The plan would represent a commendable effort on the part of the Park Service to preserve the lodgepole forests but is doomed to defeat; for it is impossible to eliminate the beetles from such a large area, and sooner or later these stands are due to die and be replaced by other types. The plan is not only futile but would be tremendously expensive.

Plan 2. Control only along the roads in areas of high fire hazard and on recreational areas. _

This plan would confine the work to areas on which most of the previous control work has been done, and would mean recleaning these areas for several years until the peak of the present epidemic has passed. It could be carried out with minimum expense and without involving the coopera- tion of adjacent owners. It would serve the purpose of reducing the fire hazard in areas of high risk and avoid unsightly dead forest areas along the main traveled roads. This plan could be carried out for the fiscal year 1930 with an expenditure of not over $5,000 and about half this amount for the next three or four years.

Plan 3. To do no control work.

If this course is followed the epidemic will soon die out for lack of suitable host material, as another three or four years will see the end of the pres- ent mature lodgepole stands in the Park. While this is the cheapest and easiest course to follow, it will leave a very unsightly mess along some of the roads and a bad fire hazard in the very places where fires are most apt to occur.

Keen recommended a continuation of the protection of valuable areas under plan 2 as the most feasible (see footnote 18).

Some of Keen's analyses of the situation were perceptive and ahead of his time. But it would be 30 to 40 years before many forest managers recognized the futility of trying to control mountain pine beetle in dense, overmature lodgepole pine stands.

Keen sent Patterson a copy of his 1929 report and a long letter on Oct. 6, 1929, saying "It is awfully hard to write up anything that you haven't first hand knowledge of and I'm afraid I have done a pretty sorry job of it." 19 It actually was the most suc- cinct and penetrating analysis of the situation thus far. Keen also told Patterson that though he (Keen) advocated a somewhat revised policy, he still recommended a continuation of the protection of special park areas. He also admitted that it was not an attempt to eliminate the beetles from the south end of the park. He told Patterson that they must "abandon all of the isolated areas and concentrate on the protection of those areas where the fire hazard is the highest and are of the most value from the recreational standpoint––in other words the areas where most of the control money has already been spent" (see footnote 19). There is no record of a reply by Patterson to this letter in the files;

The year 1929 is a good year from which to draw a picture of the control camps, equipment and personnel employed during the spring treating period. In a memo^20 to the Superintendent of Crater Lake National Park; Patterson suggested the following arrangements for 1929:

Control Camps. The personnel of each camp should consist of the following: 1; camp foreman, 1 cook, 1 compassman, 2 spotters, and 14 treaters.

However, the number of treaters may be increased to 20 if conditions warrant. The one spotting crew of 3 men can easily keep ahead of 10 treating crews of 2 men each.

(^19) Correspondence between Keen and Patterson for 1929. On file with: Pacific; Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401; Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

2O (^) Patterson; J.E. [n.d]. Memo for Supt. Crater Lake Park beetle control, spring of 1929. 2.p, On file with: Pacific North,- west Research Station, Forestry. and Range Sciences Labora- tory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850..

On October 21, Craighead replied, "Your plan for control work on the Crater [Crater Lake National Park], proposed in your letter of October 12, appears entirely satisfac- tory to me" (see footnote 21). Craighead went on to recommend "...that every effort be concentrated on the heavier groups of infestation and the outlying, more or less endemic type be left until last or allowed to go until another year" (see footnote 21). He felt there was enough experience to show that scattered infestation would not be an immediate threat. Patterson also replied to a letter from Keen, that is missing from the files, about some control unit designations. In the letter^22 was this sad paragraph,

Godfrey's death was certainly a blow to all who knew him. Coming so unexpectedly as it did, I was particularly shocked. He was a dandy fellow and a prince to work with. His habit of hiking off alone on any and all wild goose chases finally got him, He did the same thing when we were in the Park together in 1929. Always out alone with a mightly poor constitution to carry him thru. Both he, Patton, and several others caved-in the day we moved into the Park from the west entrance. Without a knowledge of snow and the individuals possibilities in bucking it, it is a real danger. Solinsky and I made the same kind of trip that Bill attempted, leaving Ft. Klamath at 7:30PM we arrived at Anna Spring at 1:30AM. I never attempted it again.

The following newspaper account of William Godfrey's misadventure and death was found in the Crater Lake headquarters files.^23

BILL GODFREY

The death of William C. Godfrey, chief ranger of the Crater Lake Park service, in a blizzard near Anna Springs last night, has cast a cloud of gloom over the entire community. "Bill" was a veteran of the park service, having held a responsible position at Yosemite before coming here. Before that time he had been a member of the U.S. Forest Service. He was a man of fine character, well read, high minded and deter- mined. When he set out to do a thing, he took a genuine pride in doing it. It was this quality so characteristic of the service to which he belonged which was responsible for his death. Bill felt that he should be at Anna Spring camp. He tried to get through from Medford, but had to turn back. So he tried it from the south entrance, via Fort Klamath and, in spite of the unfavorable weather, he was deter- mined not to turn back again.


It is easy to say Bill was foolhardy, that he overestimated his own strength and underestimated the strength of the elements. But such a judgment fails to take into account the code of the service to which he belonged, and the dominant elements of his character.

(^22) Correspondence, Patterson to Keen. Dec. 1930. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

(^23) Medford Mail Tribune. Nov. 18, 1930.

It is essentially the same code, and the same character, that led our forefathers on the successful conquest across the wilderness and our doughboys across the Hindenburg line. Bill Godfrey's tragedy is merely another example of the fact that there are heroes of peace as well as of war. The rewards for the latter far exceed the rewards of the former, but the qualities of courage and self sacrifice, behind them, are fundamentally the same.

The article goes on to say that Godfrey was 41 years old and had been chief ranger of Crater Lake National Park since April 1929. Previously he was assigned to Yosemite National Park for 2 years and before that 6 years in the Forest Service, including service with the Fremont National Forest in Lakeview, Oregon.

For some reason, known only to himself, Godfrey tried on foot to buck his way through deep snow to Anna Springs with only light clothing and no gloves and against the advice of people with whom he had talked just hours before by telephone at Fort Klamath. He collapsed just 2 miles short of Anna Springs and was found dying from exposure at 9 p.m. by a rescuer, Rudy Luecke. He lived for only several minutes after being found and tried vainly to say something to his rescuer. Signifi- cantly, the search party were all using skis so Godfrey's chances in the deep snow on foot were hopeless.

Bill Godfrey was particularly well liked by the entomologists and some time during his earlier work with the Forest Service in California he drew an appropriate cartoon of a bark cutting apparatus used for studying bark beetles. I found the cartoon during a search of the files at the Pacific Southwest Forest Research Station in Berkeley in August 1987 (cartoon on page 20).

The year 1931 might best be described as the year the ax fell on Keen's neck. Keen's 1931 report of control activities is missing from the files, but according to Frank Solinsky, in charge of Park Service operations, work started on April 30. The Forest Service treated 1,020 trees east of the park. Snow and rain storms in the park lasted from June 13 to June 30, delaying the treatment by the solar-heat method consider- ably, but helping to ease the drought conditions of 1929 and early 1930. With bad weather and all, Solinsky reported 14,747 trees cut in the park that season. Solinsky continues, "In the last three years we have spent over $33,000 and cut 48, trees”^24 Solinsky was pessimistic about ever (winning the battle unless a complete cleanup of the control units Was done. Further, he recommended stopping the control efforts unless this approach was followed. Solinsky also mentions that W. Buckhorn of the Bureau of Entomology spent the whole season in the park helping on the control work (see footnote 24).

(^24) Solinsky, Frank J. [n.d.]. Crater Lake National Park pine beetle control project for 1931. On file with: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forestry and Range Sciences Laboratory, 1401 Gekeler Lane, La Grande, Oregon 97850.

Text continues on page 29.

Figure 3 –– lodgepole pine killed by mountain pine beetle, Castle Creek area, Crater Lake National Park, October 1930.

Figure 4 –– Area treated by sun-curing method. Crater lake National Park, September 1934.

Figure 5 –– Evolution of mountain pine beetle infestations from 1924 to 1929 in Crater Lake National Park. Beetles migrating from the first established center in the northern part of the park invaded the southern areas, thereby causing great losses in these recreational stands. Control work during 1925 to 1932 was directed against infestations in all the southern forests. Areas where control was carried out in 1947 are shown encircled southeast of Crater Lake.