Forest pests accumulating despite regulations

Nonindigenous insects and pathogens continue to become established in US forests with regularity despite regulations intended to prevent this, according to a study published in the December 2010 issue of BioScience. The study, by a team led by Juliann E. Aukema of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California, found that nonindigenous insects are being newly detected in US forests at a rate of about 2.5 per year, and high-impact insects and pathogens that cause significant effects in forests, including tree death, are being newly detected every 2 to 2.5 years. The rate of detection of harmful forest invaders seems to have increased in the past two decades.

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