Gov. Janet Mills wants to spend $2 million in surplus funds to pay the state’s share of a $15 million early intervention pesticide program designed to protect Maine forests from the worst effects of a looming spruce budworm outbreak.

The request drew support from an anxious Maine forest products industry, state forestry officials and the Nature Conservancy during a legislative hearing in Augusta on Tuesday. The funding is included in the governor’s proposed $94 million update to the current budget.

The $2 million price tag is a “bargain” compared to the estimated $794 million a year cost of a budworm outbreak like the one that ravaged Maine’s forests and rural communities 40 years ago, according to Krysta West, deputy director of the Maine Forest Products Council.

“The situation is dire, but it is not bleak, thanks to advancements in science since our last outbreak and the lived experience of our neighbors to the north,” West said. “Early intervention strategy has proven to be a cost effective approach to manage a building spruce budworm population.”

If approved by state lawmakers, the early intervention program, which is still under development by the Maine Forest Service, would fund the spraying of pesticides on 300,000 acres of commercial spruce-fir forests in northern Maine where state inspectors have found evidence of overwintering budworm larvae.

The spraying of a growth-inhibiting hormone to stop the larvae from growing would take place before June.

The $2 million state share is one hurdle the program must overcome to become eligible for $12 million in federal disaster relief funding to prevent a budworm outbreak. Local forest owners would also have to contribute, although the details had yet to be worked out.

Under questioning, state forestry officials promised to get lawmakers more information on the private landowners’ share of the program costs, which some had estimated at $1 million total. Lawmakers also wanted to know if it would be a one-time cost or the first installment of a multi-year spraying program.

“Hopefully, that’s all we need, but budworm is a multi-year effort,” said state forester Patty Cormier.

A closeup of spruce budworm larvae and the damage it can do when it is feeding on the needles of a spruce or fir tree. Photo courtesy of Maine Forest Service

Some large forest owners, including Irving Woodlands, have already begun spraying their own forests. Others may make in-kind contributions instead of direct payments by building roads or improving small airport runways necessary for a large-scale aerial spraying program.

For nearly two decades, the tree-killing moths have made sporadic incursions into northern Maine from Quebec, which is engulfed in a full-fledged outbreak. This summer, state inspectors spotted a 3,000-acre hot spot of partially denuded trees in northwestern Maine.

University of Maine modeling shows that more than 178,000 acres are on the verge of defoliation when budworm larvae emerge from their already-hung cocoons next spring, hungry for the buds that grow at the end of spruce and fir trees in Maine, the most heavily forested state in the country.

The last outbreak lasted from 1967 to 1993, covering 136 million acres across eastern Canada and Maine. It stripped the needles from fir and spruce trees across most of northern Maine, killing 7 million acres of trees and costing the state’s forest economy hundreds of millions of dollars.

The outbreak was so bad that Allan Crider, who runs a company that buys spruce and fir logs for saw mills in Moose River and Stratton, recalls the cloud of moths that would gather around the streetlights in his hometown of Greenville.

“It was devastating,” Crider said of the damage. “Early intervention is key to limiting the damage done to our forest in Maine and to help protect our spruce-fir resource, which will in turn help keep the forest industry healthy along with our sawmills, loggers, truckers and landowners.”

Maine managed its last budworm outbreak much like Quebec is failing to manage its current one: spraying insecticide on trees after defoliation. This time, it wants to adopt the New Brunswick approach: Spray trees before hungry larvae emerge from their cocoons in the spring.

While Quebec’s outbreak has expanded to 33 million acres, forcing it to spray 2 million acres of trees last year, New Brunswick’s early intervention strategy has resulted in a 68% decrease in area requiring pesticide treatment, from 400,000 acres to just 13,000 acres in 2024.

An outbreak could hurt Maine’s wildlife, tourism, and its efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

For example, the spruce-fir forests in Maine’s colder, higher-elevation regions create unique habitats for Bicknell’s thrush, which Maine added to its endangered species list last year. Also, fir and spruce forests provide critical deer wintering areas.

A budworm outbreak also could reduce the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions removed from the atmosphere by Maine’s spruce-fir forests by 5%-16%, depending on the severity. Such defoliation would make it harder for Maine to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.