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The Louisiana Office of Forestry provides forest health protection assistance to state and private land managers throughout the State. The State and the USDA Forest Service Forest Health Protection unit fund this program cooperatively.
Almost 50% of the entire state of Louisiana is forested (13.8 million acres).
Over 90% of forested acreage in Louisiana is privately owned.
The Kisatchie National Forest (603,700 acres) provides recreational and wildlifebenefits as well as forest products and jobs for thousands of people.
The southern pine beetle is Louisiana’s most important forest insect pest. In 1995, a significant outbreak affected a large proportion of the State. Beetle populations have declined since that time. In 2001, there were no confirmed SPB infestations statewide, although there were hundreds of small infestations of Ips pine engraver beetles and 84 large ones.
In 2001, the forest tent caterpillar defoliated over 112,000 acres of, primarily, tupelo gum in forested wetlands, in Ascension, St. James and St. John Parishes. Severe (>50%) defoliation as found on 38,000 acres in these parishes.
The baldcypress leafroller defoliated baldcypress over an area of 110,000 acres in southeastern and south central LA in 2001. Defoliation was substantial on 53,000 acres. Although the predominant impact is loss of growth, repeated annual defoliation has resulted in significant crown dieback and mortality of sapling/pole-sized cypress.
Defoliation of loblollypines by the loblolly pine sawfly declined significantly in the spring of 2001. Winn, Caldwell, LaSalle and Jackson Parishes had scattered defoliation in older plantations.
The buck moth population was found to be decreasing in numbers in and around federal historical districts in New Orleans. Pheromone trapping was instituted to identify “hot spots” for further evaluation. In 2001, moths were collected at a rate of 1.3 per trap-day, compared to 2.8 in 2000.
In 2001, the Louisiana Office of Forestry in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service Research, and Forest Health Protection will participate in the Forest Health Monitoring program. This program is designed to annually collect, analyze, interpret, and report on the conditions of the forests in the state. In this regard, survey and detection hardware and technology continue to be updated.
In spite of the relatively good health of Louisiana’s forests, a variety of insects and diseases (both native and introduced), and human-caused impacts such as air pollution, continue to threaten the State’s resources. To deal with this constantly changing mix of challenges, the Louisiana Office of Forestry and the Forest Health Protection unit of the USDA Forest Service cooperate to prevent, detect, suppress and manage this multitude of threats. The partnership between the two agencies has worked for three decades to maintain and improve the health of Louisiana’s forests.
|
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cooperative Forest Health Program |
66,913 |
66,913 |
60,048 |
80,439 |
|
Forest Health Monitoring |
-
|
55,500 |
110,000 |
55,000 |
|
Cooperative suppression - southern pine beetle |
0 |
0 |
200,000 |
0 |
|
Kisatchie National Forest - southern pine beetle |
60,000 |
25,000 |
100,000 |
10,000 |
For additional information, contact:
Louisiana Dept. of
Agriculture and Forestry
Office of Forestry
P.O. Box 1628
Baton Rouge, LA 70821
Phone: (225) 925-4500
E-mail: rgoyer@unix1.sncc.1su.edu
Internet: http://www.ldaf.state.la.us/forestry/index.htm
or
USDA Forest Service
Forest Health Protection
2500 Shreveport Highway
Pineville, LA 71360
Phone: (318) 473-7286
E-mail: sstanley@fs.fed.us
Internet: http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/foresthealth
