S. Rex Black at Pinnacles, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.

(See more about S.R. Black in the notes below.)

Photo by: F. Paul Keen Date: c.1922

Credit: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection. Collection: Bureau of Entomology, F. Paul Keen Collection; La Grande, Oregon. Image: FPK-102

For additional information see: <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr259.pdf" rel="nofollow">www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr259.pdf</a> Wickman, Boyd E. 1990. The battle against bark beetles in Crater Lake National Park: 1925-34. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-259. Portland, OR: USDA, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 40 p.

For additional historical forest entomology photos, stories, and resources see the Western Forest Insect Work Conference site: <a href="http://wfiwc.org/content/history-and-resources" rel="nofollow">wfiwc.org/content/history-and-resources</a>

Image provided by USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection: <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/r6/forest-grasslandhealth" rel="nofollow">www.fs.usda.gov/main/r6/forest-grasslandhealth</a>

Note: Fry, Amelia R. 1968. Interview with S. Rexford Black. Private and State Forestry in California 1917-1960. Regional Oral History Office. Berkeley: University of California, Bancroft Library. 89 p. <a href="https://archive.org/stream/CAT11088243_049/CAT11088243_049_djvu.txt" rel="nofollow">archive.org/stream/CAT11088243_049/CAT11088243_049_djvu.txt</a>

"Fry: This job was under the Clarke-McNary Act funds? Black: Yes. I've forgotten the amount of the funds: it was quite a bit. Fry: For both southern Oregon and northern California? Black: That's right: Southern Oregon-Northern California Pine Beetle Control Project. Fry: And you were controlling pine beetles in both states, under the special provisions of this appropriations act? Black: That's right. Fry: Were you working primarily for the Forest Service? Black: I was working for all three agencies that first year. Then when Mr. Durbin wanted to get back to his job as Forest Supervisor of the Modoc National Forest he recommended that I take over his work and the rest of them agreed, so I did. Fry: And these three agencies were the Indian Service ... Black: Yes. The Indian Service, the Forest Service, and the private owners. Fry: Did this in effect give you three bosses instead of one? Black: I had three bosses to start with. Fry: In the first year? Black: Yes. In the second year I still had the other two. I was more or less my own boss on the Forest Service from the spring of 1923 until the end of the project in the spring of 1924. I received some increase in salary when I took that over, and they gave me the title of Forest Supervisor, which was purely because of the salary involved, I think. Fry: I understand the area covered more than just one forest. Black: There were three national forests involved: the Klamath, the Modoc, and the Fremont. Fry: It would be interesting to know how you went about this business of killing off the bugs. Black: We worked during the season when logging camps were not active; in other words, it was the winter season when the bugs were dormant, when they were in the bark of the trees. The procedure was to fell the tree, saw it down, chop the bark off and burn it. The bark was peeled from the top and sides of the fallen tree, and piled under it and set on fire, which killed the beetles on the lower side of the tree where it could not be readily peeled. That was done when there was no danger of fire, of course, being in the winter. We were able to get the loggers who were seasonal workers, up there so far as their normal activity was concerned. We had fine crews and good men; camps of about twenty to twenty-five people per camp scattered around so they could walk back and forth to work. Fry: What was the result? Black: It was very successful. And they still use that method. Fry: So the infestation was controlled? Black: Greatly decreased. I would not say completely controlled. We still have them in the state. But I think they follow the same procedure in control. My roommate happened to be Paul Keen (a graduate of the University of California) of the Bureau of Entomology who was in charge of the technical work. Fry: Was that Oregon or California? Black: His headquarters were in California, which was the headquarters for the Pacific coast Bureau of Entomology. Fry: Did you work rather closely with Keen as he furnished the scientific information?