Сибирский лесной журнал (Oct 2021)
Interaction of science and practice in the protection of taiga forests of Krasnoyarsk Krai: the outbreak of the Siberian moth in the late 1960s
Abstract
The first note about the outbreaks of the Siberian moth Dendrolimus sibiricus Tschetv. (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae) was published 125 years ago. The pest outbreaks of the 1950s and 1960s are poorly documented in Krasnoyarsk Krai. For the first time we provide the details of planning, organizing and implementing large-scale measures to combat the Siberian moth outbreak in the second half of the 1960s. The outbreaks that occurred in the southern taiga forests of the region covered an area of 260 thousand hectares. The maximal insect density reached 7 thousand caterpillars per one fir tree. The outbreak was successfully suppressed thanks to its early prediction, development and implementation of surveillance methods, as well as methods of aerial treatment and assessment of efficiency of protection measures. In 1967–1969, the crews of 45 An-2 aircraft during 2.5 thousand flight hours treated more than 200 thousand hectares of the pest foci with the dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane solution. Over 1,100 people took part in the aeronautical work, including about 250 engineers and technicians. During the 1960s outbreak, the total labor costs for airborne combat with the Siberian moth exceeded 22.000 man-days. To control the Siberian moth, for the first time, high concentration of the insecticide was used, i. e. 20 % oil solution of DDT + hexachlorocyclohexane, with ultra-low consumption rates of working solutions (from 3 to 5 l/ha). The Siberian moth outbreak that occurred on in Krasnoyarsk Territory in the mid-1960s clearly demonstrated high importance of cooperation between scientists and forest protection practitioners. The joint work contributed to the initiation of a specialized institution – the Station (later the Center) of forest protection of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, which leaders in different years were the researchers from the V. N. Sukachev Institute of Forest Sib. Br. Rus. Acad. Sci.
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