To most Marylanders, the protected state forests called wildlands are more an idea than a destination - rarely seen but treasured by many as untouchable tracts of tall trees more than a century old.
To Marshall Stacy, they are a menace.
Stacy grows giant Christmas trees up to 40 feet tall on 315 acres in Garrett County surrounded by the Middle Fork Wildland in the Savage River State Forest. Gypsy moth caterpillars defoliated more than 15,000 acres of hardwood trees in the county last spring during an infestation that is expected to worsen next year.
Some of the insects attacked hardwoods on Stacy's land, despite his spraying of pesticide. They laid eggs even on the trunks of evergreens, which they usually avoid. Now Stacy and most members of the Savage River Forest Citizens Advisory Board he chairs have sent the state an alarming message: either spray more pesticides in the wildlands or log them to curb the gypsy moth damage.
Not even Stacy believes the General Assembly will allow timber sales in wildlands. But he and his allies, including the Maryland Forest Association, hope to use this year's surprisingly heavy gypsy moth damage as a wedge to further loosen the Department of Natural Resources' restrictive management practices on wildlands.
"I believe that man has the ultimate control and he has some kind of obligation when the natural balance is out of synch," Stacy said during a tour of his tree farm, Pinetum Enterprises.
"If the state is going to let the thing that beats the crap out of the big old trees have its way, the state is being a crappy neighbor, as far as I'm concerned."
Stacy's insistence on making wildlands the focus of a plea for more moth-suppression funds split the 10-member board. Two refused to sign the letter sent in November to Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
Mark Diehl, who represents the Sierra Club on the panel, said he opposed the proposition that the state either give top priority to spraying wildlands or allow them to be logged.
Kevin Dodge, director of the Natural Resources and Wildlife Technology program at Garrett College, said the letter was too sensational.
"A letter about controlling gypsy moths ended up mixing in things about wildlands, which I didn't think was necessary," he said.
Wildlands have always been a sensitive topic, championed by environmentalists and opposed by the Maryland Forest Association, which counts logging and forest-products companies among its members.
Established by the General Assembly in 1971 to protect areas that have "retained their wilderness character" or harbor rare or vanishing species, the State Wildlands Preservation System encompasses 29 tracts and 43,773 acres. The law has since been amended to allow wildfire suppression and necessary measures to control insects and diseases, including chemical treatment.
Some wildlands, including tracts in the Savage River State Forest, were sprayed last spring _ but sparingly, state officials said. They used a biological insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis, that is less effective but kinder to other wildlife than the chemical pesticide Dimilin.
"We try to use a light-as-we-can approach to wildlands," State Forester Steven W. Koehn said.
The nonnative gypsy moth is by far the most destructive pest of forest and shade trees in Maryland. During cyclical infestations, the caterpillars eat the leaves of oaks and other hardwoods from late April through June. Heavy populations of caterpillars will eat most or all leaves on a tree, leaving it weak and susceptible to other diseases. Repeated defoliation can kill trees.
This year's defoliation of 15,793 acres, almost all in Garrett County, was the worst since 2002. The large number of tan egg masses now visible on tree trunks in the Savage River State Forest has some in Garrett County worried about a repeat of 1990, when 133,062 acres were defoliated across Maryland.
"Take out the trees and I don't know what you're going to have left," Stacy said. "You're going to be in deep doo-doo."
Robert Tichenor Jr., chief of Forest Pest Management at the Maryland Department of Agriculture, said he's planning for a roughly 60 percent increase in spraying next year over an expanded area that will likely include parts of the counties of Allegany, Baltimore, Frederick and Washington. Last year, 25,500 acres were treated.
But funding isn't assured. Last year, the General Assembly granted $350,000 in emergency funds to supplement approximately $400,000 in federal funds, $100,000 in budgeted state funds and $120,000 from the counties for gypsy moth suppression.
Tichenor expects a decrease in federal funds next year, which will likely prompt another appeal to the legislature for an emergency supplement to the approximately $100,000 in budgeted state funds.
The DNR decides which state lands get priority.
"We did not plan for this type of contingency 18 months ago," Koehn said. "It's very difficult for a state agency to be nimble enough, financially ... to set aside in the budget chunks of money when you don't have a demonstrated need."
Stacy suggested the state double the harvest of timber on state lands where logging is allowed, and use the additional money to fund more spraying. Koehn said he's not contemplating such a strategy, but that more logging may be ordered after the caterpillars feast to remove dead and dying trees that could otherwise become fuel for wildfires.
Senator-elect George Edwards, R-Garrett, a state delegate who contends the state has enough wildlands, said he'll push for more spraying in state forests, including wildlands.
"What happens if they don't treat it is, it gets on the private land," Edwards said. "I think the state needs to pony up to the bar, as they say, and put more money in to help."The Capital
