The European spruce bark, or engraver, beetle is considered to be one of the most destructive pests of spruce on the continent of Europe. The ability to breed in very fresh bark, coupled with the habit of continuing to feed in the bark on completion of development, makes the insect a serious pest of spruce forests.

Sample Areas were developed using the Susceptibility Surface. A total of 1,200 sample areas were assigned to one of four risk categories. Relative certainties were assigned to each category in order to create increasing plot intensifications for increasing risk stratums.