Executive Summary

• Main Authors: Yukon Forest, Rod Garbutt
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dezadeash; Dezadeash Lake; Kluane Lake; Kusawa Lake; Mush Lake; Shakwak Trench; Talbot Arm; Yukon; Kluane National Park
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.123.8096; http://www.emr.gov.yk.ca/forestry/pdf/forest_health_report_03.pdf

The annual survey of forest pests in the Yukon was conducted in July 2003. Attacks from the spruce bark beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis, in southwest Yukon resulted in white spruce mortality on 41 641 ha, down from last year’s 69 400 ha. The most intensive activity is south of Mush Lake in Kluane National Park, and south of Dezadeash Lake as far as the B.C. border. Significant this year were expansions of infestations to the north along Talbot Arm on Kluane Lake and to the east from Dezadeash Lake toward Kusawa Lake. Current attack levels remained high, indicating that the infestation will continue undiminished in 2004. Another objective this year was an intensive survey to determine the incidence of the root disease, Inonotus tomentosus, and the relationship, if any, between the root disease and the spruce bark beetle. In the Shakwak Trench in southwest Yukon, 815 white spruce trees were sampled in the permanent forest health assessment plots. Of these, 350 (43.3%) had at least one root that exhibited a pink stain, characteristic of the early stage of the disease. There was almost no sign (<1 % of trees) of the advanced stage of the disease in any of the plots and there was no significant difference