MAINE PUBLIC • December 29, 2025
Timberland owners and state officials hope to resume aerial treatment for spruce budworm next spring. Targeted aerial spraying across 240,000 acres in Aroostook County this spring helped bring the native pests under control and prevent a population surge that could threaten Maine's forest health and economy. Stakeholders plan to spray again this year. But some pockets of elevated budworm populations in Northern Maine are on land owned by small woodlot owners who declined to join the program. The campaign's objective is to prevent the repeat of a legendary budworm outbreak in the 1970s and 1980s that damaged millions of acres of Maine forest and reshaped the forestry industry and state clear cutting regulations.