Forest Service launches Blue Cascade Spruce Budworm Response Project

The U.S. Forest Service is gearing up to launch a spruce budworm response project in Cook County this summer as the prevalence of the spruce budworm expands across northeastern Minnesota.

Spruce budworm, a native insect that feeds on the needles of spruce and balsam fir, fluctuates in 30-40-year cycles. The last influx of spruce budworm occurred in the 1980s in Cook County.

As a preventative mitigation effort, this summer, the Forest Service intends to implement a Blue Cascade Spruce Budworm Response and Restoration Project stretching from the Caribou Trail to County Road 14, east of Grand Marais. The entire project will encompass over 2000 acres and focus on vegetation management, reducing hazardous fuels, and minimizing the density of spruce plantations to allow for more ecologically appropriate mixed-forest types.

Ellen Bogardus-Szymaniak, the Tofte district ranger, said many of the targeted areas are existing spruce plantations that were planted nearly 50 years ago. The plantations have unnaturally high tree densities and are particularly vulnerable to damage due to the lack of diversity, she said, leading to a potentially high mortality rate of the spruce plantation.

“So we might as well just go ahead and take them down now while they have some value,” said Bogardus-Szymaniak. “Then replant in those areas, what needs to be there.”

The Forest Service will then replant the areas with white pine, red pine, aspen, and birch to create a more mixed boreal forest. 

During the summer of 2024, Bogardus-Szymaniak said the Forest Service will focus its efforts on the Pike Lake area in Cook County. Then, in the coming years, move eastward. Treatments include clearcut with reserves, hazardous fuel reduction, prescribed burning, and mechanical site preparations. 

The Forest Service’s website will provide additional maps, information, and updates as it prepares for the upcoming project. 

A map of the identified areas is below:

Bogardus-Szymaniak said the project is waiting for the final National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) document to be signed so “we can go ahead and start putting together treatments.”

WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins spoke with Ellen Bogardus-Szymaniak, the Tofte district ranger, about the upcoming Blue Cascade Spruce Budworm Response and Restoration Project. The audio from the interview is below. 

Kalli Hawkins April 24, 2024