Dead Lodgepole pine killed by Pine Beauty Rimsdale

Date Added: 29 June 2012 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1980 Picture No: 1173

Photograph courtesy of John Keenleyside, Forres.

The photograph shows Lodgepole pine in Rimsdale Forest which has been killed by larvae from the Pine beauty moth. During the 1970s in parts of Scotland some defoliation of small areas of Lodgepole pine was occurring. This was noticed in particular where Lodgepole pine was planted on relatively deep peat of more than 9 inches.

In Rimsdale circa 1976 the numbers of Pine Beauty moth caterpillers were very spectacular with thousands crawling on each Lodgepole pine tree. They quickly consumed all the needles and once one tree was bare they fell to the ground and then crawled up neighbouring trees to consume the foliage there also. By the end of the summer a large section of Rimsdale Forest (area on deeper peat) was a standing forest of dying brown trees without any needles. Small areas of Sitka spruce among the pine also succumbed as the caterpillars were so desperate for food they stripped them also.

It turned out that the larve/caterpillars pupated over winter in the peat where trees had been growing for 10-20 years and had dried out somewhat, thus providing a perfect medium for surviving the winter climate. Over a number of years the population of moths in certain locations grew very dramatically and then reached plague proportions causing significant areas of Lodgepole pine tree death. Rimsdale was the most spectacular by some distance at over 500ha? (need to get confirmation on area).

Following this attack Forest Research and Institute of Engineering from Cranfield University quickly set up monitoring procedures and devised spraying control methods. But that is another story that spanned the next decade. It so happens the dead trees in Rimsdale Forest were under planted with Sitka spruce that grew well, at least initially, but the author has not been back since.

Can anyone say how the plantation is now?

The loch at the bottom may be Loch Rimsdale but also Loch nan Clar is adjacent and is the that Ben Armine in the distance?

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Groups: Animal, Insect, Plant and Fungal species in forestry, Forest Research, Forestry Areas

1 Comment

John Keenleyside (Forres) remembers that there was a great deal of depate as to whether the deep peat in Rimsdale Forest should ever be planted. At the time John Dixon was Consevator in North Scotland and he agreed that three trial forests should be established on deep peat. The areas chosen were Fiag Forest near Loch Shin, Rimsdale and also an area of Rumster on the north side of the 'Casseymire'. A specialist tractor, the T500, with track plates formed from retangular section aluminium tubing strengthened with oak inserts did the ploughing. The whole compartments were planted with a variety of Lodgepole pine provenances and possibly other species.

The Rimsdale Forest strated in 1958 but much of it was destroyed by Pine beauty caterpillar attack in 1976. Fiag Forest started in 1961 but here also it was largely destroyed this time by fire and so only the Ruster trial forest survived. Comment left on 23 November 2016 at 11:10 by Norman Davidson

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