By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

When the Piney Woods Journal arrived at a site on the Winn District of the Kisatchie National Forest about seven miles west of Gum Springs off Highway 84 on Brewton Camp road, we were surprised to see what had been a two acre tract of "Kisatchie Forest Jungle-Land" now transformed into a pyramid of electronic towers, cables and hoses, computers and monitors and a dozen plus scientists from around the United States.

The official name of the experimental study is "Dispersion of Pheromone in a Southern Pine Canopy - Four Stand Density Scenarios." Objective of the study is to determine how stand density affects the behavior of pheromone plumes (natural bug odors, in layman's terms) in a southern pine stand. Thinning is known to reduce losses to SPB (Southern Pine Beetles) by reducing infestation growth (rate and size).

The experimental design study was developed by the USDA Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team headquartered in Morgantown, West Virginia and implemented in conjunction with the Southern Forest Experiment Station in Pineville, Louisiana.

On the local scene, Winn District Ranger Frank Yerby and longtime U.S. Forest Service member, Robert Howell were very much involved in the project.

Harold W. Thistle, Jr., Ph.D. University of Connecticut graduate with a specialty in Forest Meteorology, is team leader of this 14-person team plus support personnel from the Gum Springs U.S. Forest Service and at the Southern Forest Research Center. Dr. Thistle told the Journal, "We are eleven days into this experiment without any breaks. The first few days we got a lot of rain but that did not slow us down."

Dr. Thistle points to the 2x12 planks that run all out through the two acre tracts, "We had to walk on those because of so much rain. We started out our experiment with all the underbrush and under-story in place to determine how the pheromone from the southern pine beetle is transferred in brushy surroundings."

"This chemical substance that we call pheromone is given off by the southern pine beetle both to attract and repel other pine beetles," Dr. Thistle explained in layman's terms. "The substance that we are releasing is very similar in characteristics to the natural beetle pheromone. As the substance is released, we monitor how it moves around the area with all types of monitors, samplers, and sensors, some of which are on towers."

"Every minute of this experiment is recorded both on the computers as well as by video camera," explained the professor of Forest Meteorology who also has a Master degree from the University of Delaware. "We do know from other experiments that the pheromone, or odor given off by the southern pine beetles can both attract or repel other beetles from joining groups of the beetles. If there are too many beetles in an area, the pheromone acts as a repellent."

"After four days of experiments with the natural under-brush and under-story in place, the under-brush and under-story was removed by hand by the Forest Service," Dr. Thistle pointed out. "At that point, we were down to a 140 basal area (140 trees per acre) in which we conducted the same experiments for another four days. After that, we had a local logger, Travis Taylor who has been doing thinning on the Kisatchie, bring in his equipment and cut back to a 100 basal area."

"At the 100 basal area, we conducted the same experiment for two days," Dr. Thistle pointed out. "Then we had Travis come back in and take our two acre experimental plot down to a 70 basal area on which we will conduct four days of experiments."

In the background for the study, Dr. Thistle, James Meeker and Brian Strom, an entomologist with the Southern Research Station in Pineville wrote "In the past few decades, outbreaks of North American bark beetles have brought about renewed interest in these often devastating forest pests. The impact of these outbreaks and the anticipated impact of future outbreaks have stimulated the continuation of basic and applied research on the use of serio-chemicals to manipulate bark beetle populations (Werner and Holsten 1995).

In the Southern U.S., losses to the southern pine beetle are often dramatic and have reached unprecedented proportions in recent years (USDA Forest Service 2003a,b). To mitigate forest losses and improve forest health, initiatives emphasizing thinning pine stands have recently been funded. Thinning is known to improve forest health and reduce bark beetle mortality in southern pine stands (Belanger 1980, Lorio 1980, Nebeker et al. 1985); however, the mechanisms by which this occurs are not well understood.

Also, on the Thistle team is Ph.D. Holly Peterson, a civil engineer from the U.S. Forest Service office in Missoula, Montana. Dr. Petersen, with degrees from Montana Tech and Washington State University has been on the "Thistle Experiment Team" since 1999.

Dr. Petersen who was in charge of the engineering part of the experiment on the Kisatchie told the Journal, "This is our first experiment of this kind in South. We have conducted two other experiments of this kind on bark beetles. The first was near Missoula and the second was near La Pine which is near Bend, Oregon."

"What we are doing here is taking samples of low risk chemicals at 30 meters, 10 meters and 5 meters from the point of release," Dr. Petersen explained. "All total in this experiment, we will release about 7 grams of chemical gas which is about a quarter of an ounce. We are also using a colored smoke to help us track the wind movements which we already can determine are more pronounced as we opened up this stand of trees."

Also playing a key role on the "Thistle Experiment Team" was Jim Kautz of Missoula. Kautz, a Montana State University graduate with a B.S. degree in Photography, Film and TV production is the official photographer for the experiment. Kautz, a longtime US Forest Service working out of the Montana US Forest Service Engineering center as a photographer has taken countless photographs of the big forest fires that have burned out of control for days in the Western United States in recent years.

Kautz's works have appeared in National Geographic magazine and he has produced numerous documentaries about the Forest Service some of which have appeared on the Discovery Channel. Kautz also holds several patents on photography equipment.

"We have this whole experiment on film and in still panoramic shots," Kautz explained to the Journal. "I'm also using a `fisheye lens' camera which gives us a 180 degree vision including straight up. Our film and photography efforts will allow us to document the running time of the experiment as well as the sun patterns and how it filters through the tree canopies."

Most of Kautz's cameras were Nikons and the camera with the `fish-eye lens' was mounted on a tripod with a leveling device. "All this data that we are collecting during these fourteen days will be heavily analyzed over the next year. With both cameras and computers documenting each minute of the experiment, our scientific people should be able to come up with some very substantial data."

In Dr. Thistle's specific area of expertise, Forest Meteorology, the monitoring included collecting data such as mean wind vector and turbulence data will be collected on site using three-axis, 15 cm path-length, Vx probe sonic anemometers (ATI, Longmont, Colorado) collecting data at 10Hz. The sonic anemometers will be deployed in a profile with one in the trunk space, one near the vertical canopy density maximum, and one above canopy.

Dr. Thistle noted that this was his first trip to central Louisiana, "We have been so busy that we haven't really got a chance to sample Louisiana cuisine at its best. We have managed to go to Natchitoches a couple of times and eat. I liked the fried catfish very much and the frog legs, however, some of the group, especially the ladies from Montana didn't think much of the frog legs."

Willie Howell, who runs a chipper for Travis Taylor Logging and Chipping company which was involved in a thinning operation on the adjoining forest service tract, told the Journal, "They may be a bunch of Ph.Ds and scientists but they are a hard working group. Every morning they are out here before we get to our jobsite and they are still working when we leave in the afternoon."

The different entities involved in the Experiment on the Winn District of the Kisatchie National forest were: USDA - FS Southern Research Station, USDA FS Region 8, USDA-FS Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team, USDA-FS Missoula Technology and Development Center, Washington State University, and Montana Technical University.

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