Stewart Holbrook (author) and Axel Brandstrom (USFS). World's largest Douglas-fir, Klootchie Creek area. Clatsop County, Oregon.

Photo by: Stan Speigle Date: July 10, 1945

Credit: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection. Collection: Portland Station Collection; La Grande, Oregon. Image: Speigle-18

To learn more about this photo collection see: Wickman, B.E., Torgersen, T.R. and Furniss, M.M. 2002. Photographic images and history of forest insect investigations on the Pacific Slope, 1903-1953. Part 2. Oregon and Washington. American Entomologist, 48(3), p. 178-185.

Note about Holbrook's visit to the 1945 hemlock looper control project: "Writing for the Oregonian late in August 1945, Stewart Holbrook referred to DDT as the 'Atomic Bomb for Parasites in the Forests.' Holbrook recounted the recent history of a hemlock looper infestation in Oregon's coastal forests south of the Columbia River and the amazing success DDT achieved in combating the outbreak. Using the metaphors of war, the Portland writer reported that state forester Nelson Rogers was in 'overall command of the war against the loopers.' State and federal entomologists used a mixture of DDT, 'which looks like a high grade of white flour,' at the rate of one pound to two gallons of fuel oil. Two small aircraft flown in from Yakima, Washington, loaded the liquid aboard at a makeshift landing strip and applied the spray in late June. The results of this first effort to use DDT on a West Coast forest were astonishing, according to Holbrook: 'The death of the loopers happened so quickly, so silently, yet so manifestly, that I could do little but wonder.'" From: Robbins, W.G. 2010. Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000. University of Washington Press. p. 116

For more about Holbrook see: <a href="http://www.ochcom.org/holbrook/" rel="nofollow">www.ochcom.org/holbrook/</a>

For work by Brandstrom see: Brandstrom, A. and B. Kirkland. 1936. Selective Timber Management in the Douglas-fir Region. Washington D.C. 122 p.

For additional historical forest entomology photos, stories, and resources see the Western Forest Insect Work Conference site: <a href="http://wfiwc.org/content/history-and-resources" rel="nofollow">wfiwc.org/content/history-and-resources</a>