Photos from the WFIWC Archives:
Canada
Personnel and spouses at Seebe, Alberta, 1955. Among them are: standing, far left, R.W. Stark, R.F. Shepherd and at far right, R.W. Reid. (Photo provided by R.W. Reid).
The Calgary Laboratory. The Calgary Forest Zoology Lab opened in 1947 with G.R. Hopping in charge. Field work was located at the Kananaskis Forest Experiment Station at Seebe, 67 km west of Calgary. However, the occurrence of insect infestations in Banff N.P. led to relocating work there, first at "Silver City" and finally to a newly constructed facility in 1956 known as the Eisenhower Field Station. Initial studies involved the lodgepole needle miner by Ronald W. Stark; the two-year cycle spruce budworm by Roy F. Shepherd; and the mountain pine beetle (MPB) by Robert W. Reid and associates. The Calgary lab was closed in 1969 and its forest research and survey staff were re-located to the Northern Forest Research Centre in Edmonton. Entomological work at the Eisenhower Field Station terminated in 1970 and the facility reverted to the Park. The camp buildings were auctioned off in 2003 and the site was restored to natural condition.
Eisenhower Field Station, located along Altrude Creek, Banff N.P. The station was used by staff of the Calgary lab from 1956 until the lab was closed and relocated to Edmonton in 1969. The buildings were dismantled in 2003 and the site restored. Photo from Laurenson, 2006.
Eisenhower Field Station. The site of this facility was along Altrude Cr., a tributary of the Bow R., and was suggested by Roy Shepherd who had fished the area as a boy. It was named for the nearby Mt. Eisenhower (originally Castle Mtn.). Laurenson (2006) interviewed many of the people who worked at the station. Their stories show them to be dedicated workers of high morale and are steeped in nostalgia and humor.
Safranyik (2009) recounts: "The key component of the MPB program at the Calgary Lab during the 1960s was investigation of the nature and effects of the interaction between lodgepole pine and the MPB with its associated blue stain fungi. Based on earlier work on MPB biology, Rob Reid showed the importance of resin production in brood establishment and survival. This work was followed by detailed investigations by Malcolm Shrimpton (physiologist), Stu Whitney (pathologist) and Rob Reid, under Rob's leadership, of the physiology of host response to injury, the role of the blue stain fungi in host colonization by the beetle and brood survival, and the effect of environmental conditions on host response to injury.
Rob Reid at Ya Tinda, Alberta after a day's ride. Rob raised and trained horses throughout his years at the Reid homestead on the Alberta prairie at Millet, Alberta. He has made many trips with his horses in the Rocky Mountains. Photos of his family, horses, and some tales of his own are in his pictorial book, Our Alberta Home at http://ouralbertahome.com/Stories%20-%20Too%20Long.htm (Malcolm Furniss)
"Rob Reid followed Roy Shepherd as Section Head, forest entomology research, in 1968 and in 1969 he became Director of forest protection at the new CFS Edmonton lab. The same year, I took over leadership of the MPB program and started work on the role of stand dynamics and climate and weather on MPB epidemiology. The information gained from the MPB program resulted in two milestone publications during the mid-1970s that showed for the first time the key importance of lodgepole pine-beetle-blue stain interactions, stand dynamics, climate and weather, in determining changes in population and damage levels of the MPB in space and time. A strong practical conclusion from this work was that the key underlying problem relating to development of outbreaks was tree and stand susceptibility. Hence, the long-term focus of management needs to be toward lodgepole pine not toward the MPB (emphasis added by MMF).
"This multidiscipline approach to bark beetle research, envisioned by Rob Reid was seminal and influenced the direction of contemporary and subsequent work in this field. This is especially so for research on tree resistance and for studies of bark beetle associated microorganisms and bark beetle symbiology."
My thanks to Imre Otvos, Bob Stevenson, Les Safranyik and Rob Reid for information related to this posting. -- Malcolm Furniss
Literature
H.F. Cerezke. 2003. History of forest entomology in Alberta. Proceedings 50th meeting Entomological Soc. Alberta. p. 21-28.
Safranyik, L. 2009. Of Field Stations and field work: Some notes about my involvement in bark beetle research in western Canada. 7p.
Laurenson, A. 2006. Eisenhower Forestry Station (Castle Camp) History. 98 p.
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