Life Sciences Commons^™

Optical Management Of The Spruce-Fir Forest Against The Spruce Budworm, Gari B. Simon

Senior Scholar Papers

Proper management of the softwood forest-budworm ecosystem is vital to the future prosperity of Maine. In choosing a management strategy, economic as well as ecological effects must be considered. This paper constructs a computer simulation model of the budworm-forest ecosystem in order to better evaluate effects of different types of forest management. The budworm-softwood forest ecosystem is a highly complicated system involving three dynamic population systems: the host tree population, the budworm population and the foliage population. Each system is modeled, by regression analysis, to observations collected by entomologists over the past half century. There are large gaps of knowledge …