Lorraine Maclauchlan

Ph.D., Forest Research Entomologist, Thompson Okanagan Region, MOF 

Lorraine has a BSc from the University of Victoria, and a Masters of Pest Management and PhD in forest entomology from Simon Fraser University. Lorraine has been the Forest Research Entomologist with the BC Ministry of Forests, Thompson Okanagan Region, since 1987. Lorraine is based in Kamloops, but her work and research has taken her throughout the province working on a diversity of topics including defoliators, pests of young stands, impacts of drought, and bark beetles.  She also taught the undergraduate Forest Entomology course at Thompson Rivers University for 21 years.

Forest Health Conditions in the Southern Interior: Another Western Spruce Budworm Outbreak

This presentation will summarize the results of the 2024 Aerial Overview Survey, forest health operations, and targeted surveys conducted in the Cariboo, Thompson Okanagan and Kootenay Boundary Regions. Twenty-eight unique damage agents were mapped during the 2024 surveys, compared to 21 in 2023 affecting approximately 1,499,708 hectares. A significant proportion of recorded damage was due to western spruce budworm defoliation (880,736 ha) and drought (242,270 ha), with fire affecting less of the landscape (154,396 ha) than in 2023. Western spruce budworm was particularly damaging in the Merritt and Lillooet TSA’s, severely affecting many young stands and higher elevation mixed species stands. Woodborer damage, coupled with bark stripping by woodpeckers, continued to kill scattered patches of trees in the south area, affecting 4,823 ha.