January 6, 1966 (20 pages)

~ r nN xt NORTHERN MINES & CALIFORNIA REPORTS ERS Et es Ee ee FE et oP eet Boyce Thompson Technicians Battle Bark Beetles At The Old North Star Mine In Grass Valley . By Don Hoagland “The year 1966 may be abad in Grass Valley is a product of one for the beetles, ” This isnot a prediction on musical trends or a look at the balance of payments situation between the United States and Great Britain, It is a statement of fact made in Grass Valley and may mean # LAB ASSISTANT Carole Hollingsworth of Grass Valley gathers The Boyce Thompson Institute that resolve. The Institute, now tuh from the accrual of earned interest from the original endowment, research contracts from private industry and returns on profits from commercial products resulting from research, now has its main offices in Yonkers, New nore tas Ee aaa * beg bs rt ‘ Pee hehe Yt beetles which have been brought out of logs by the warmth of the insectary set up on the North Star Mine property. the eventual defeat of one of the greatest enemies of the timber industry in the United States, The prediction is the result of work going on at the Boyce Thompson Institute south of Grass Valley. The enemy is the bark beetle. The Boyce Thompson Institute was founded in 1924 by millionaire miner Boyce Thompson to investigate basic plants as sources of food, Thompson was sent to Europe in 1915 by the government to encourage the Russians to continue resistance against the Germans, He saw so much starvation and desolation there that when he returned he decided to start an organization to do research to solve the world-wide food problem. York, Research stations are located at Beaumont, Texas as well as Grass Valley, In Grass Valley, the forest research laboratory consists of some 800 acres of the former North Star Mine. The lab and insectary are housed in the old mine buildings, The primary project of the Grass Valley office of the Institute is _the defeat of the bark beetle, Seemingly the project is a simple one and ‘one familiar to almost all--the attraction of the male for the female. Researchers at the local lab have determined that the male, through its excrement or fecal peliets emits a sex attrahent sme?l to draw the female, The problem is simple, find out what the chemical makeup of the a smell is, reproduce it and attract ‘all the female beetles, In theory it is simple, in practice in the lab is a different matter, The lab in Grass Valley was started in 1957 and the staff has been working on this project ever since, ; Gary Pitman, an entomologist, is in charge of the Grass Valley lab and is project leader on this particular phase of the Institute's research work, Nine local residents are employed by the facility. Three are outside workers who cultivate an attractive atmosphere for the beetle laden logs for the lab. The others are employed in the lab, Pitman maintains that the coming year may be the time for the big breakthrough in the long research, Working with an-unknown, all he willsay is that “we expect some significant advances toindicate that 1966 may be our big year.“ Just what is going on to indicate this? Simply .described, the matter revolves around the sex attraction of the male and female, The male leavesthe scent andthe female.follows,._Isolate this and the beetles can all be lead out of town like the Pied Piper lead the rats, Isolating this attrahent and reproducing itisthe big problem, This is known. The male produces the smell and it is contained in the male excrement or fecal pellets. The problem is that the little beetle hardly produces enough: pellets to satisfy the re-: searchers curiosity or need, So, they go looking for beetle trees, Brown or dying pine trees are usually an indication of the malady. On their own 800 acres and on private land in the area, the researchers gather beetle logs, These ate stacked in warm insectaries which bring the beetles out of the logs, These are gathered, refrigerated in a near dormant stage until needed, and separated under a microscope by Sex. The male is then introduced into another log tofeed, removed and placed in a funnel like device which gathers the precious fecal pellets, The odor from the pellets is then removed by hypodermic syringe and introduced into an electronic gadget which measures the beetles reactions to odor, Find the biggest reaction and they have the secret, The re. searchers in Grass Valley have two main problems, One is the slowness of the beetles to produce enough raw material and the second_is the slowness of the present equipment to analyze the chemical and beetle reactions to the varioussmells, There is little that can be done about the slowness of the beetles, but new ¥. equipment is being invented all the time. Why is the sex life of the bark beetle important? According to Pitman, this beetle, about the size of a pencil lead, does more damage to our forests annually than all the forest fires, Attract him to an area where he can be isolated and destroyed and we have cut off one of the greatest menaces to one of the west's biggest industries. All of this drama is going on right outside Grass Valley and hardly anyone knows about it. “We have nothing to advertise, " = GARY PIT'MAN of Grass Valley, Pitman says. Yet two-fourD, one of the most widely used insecticides in this country, was developed and patented through Boyce Thompson research. Money from royalties went back into the institute.to finance further research projects. Sothe beetle war goes on quietly on the outskirts of Grass Valley, but the outcome of this war could have enormous ramifications on the American timber industry, Asthe man said, “the year 1966 could be a bad one for the beetles, “ : ie: project leader at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Grass Valley, removes the well-fed bark beetles from a test pine log. PITMAN AND chemist Alan Relick, a visitor from the Institute's home office in Yonkers, N. Y., check a graph from an electronic device which measures beetle reaction to the smells from various gases injected into it. 9961 ‘9 Arenuef***3033nN AqunoD epeAsn***. pp

~ r nN xt NORTHERN MINES & CALIFORNIA REPORTS ERS Et es Ee ee FE et oP eet Boyce Thompson Technicians Battle Bark Beetles At The Old North Star Mine In Grass Valley . By Don Hoagland “The year 1966 may be abad in Grass Valley is a product of one for the beetles, ” This isnot a prediction on musical trends or a look at the balance of payments situation between the United States and Great Britain, It is a statement of fact made in Grass Valley and may mean # LAB ASSISTANT Carole Hollingsworth of Grass Valley gathers The Boyce Thompson Institute that resolve. The Institute, now tuh from the accrual of earned interest from the original endowment, research contracts from private industry and returns on profits from commercial products resulting from research, now has its main offices in Yonkers, New nore tas Ee aaa * beg bs rt ‘ Pee hehe Yt beetles which have been brought out of logs by the warmth of the insectary set up on the North Star Mine property. the eventual defeat of one of the greatest enemies of the timber industry in the United States, The prediction is the result of work going on at the Boyce Thompson Institute south of Grass Valley. The enemy is the bark beetle. The Boyce Thompson Institute was founded in 1924 by millionaire miner Boyce Thompson to investigate basic plants as sources of food, Thompson was sent to Europe in 1915 by the government to encourage the Russians to continue resistance against the Germans, He saw so much starvation and desolation there that when he returned he decided to start an organization to do research to solve the world-wide food problem. York, Research stations are located at Beaumont, Texas as well as Grass Valley, In Grass Valley, the forest research laboratory consists of some 800 acres of the former North Star Mine. The lab and insectary are housed in the old mine buildings, The primary project of the Grass Valley office of the Institute is _the defeat of the bark beetle, Seemingly the project is a simple one and ‘one familiar to almost all--the attraction of the male for the female. Researchers at the local lab have determined that the male, through its excrement or fecal peliets emits a sex attrahent sme?l to draw the female, The problem is simple, find out what the chemical makeup of the a smell is, reproduce it and attract ‘all the female beetles, In theory it is simple, in practice in the lab is a different matter, The lab in Grass Valley was started in 1957 and the staff has been working on this project ever since, ; Gary Pitman, an entomologist, is in charge of the Grass Valley lab and is project leader on this particular phase of the Institute's research work, Nine local residents are employed by the facility. Three are outside workers who cultivate an attractive atmosphere for the beetle laden logs for the lab. The others are employed in the lab, Pitman maintains that the coming year may be the time for the big breakthrough in the long research, Working with an-unknown, all he willsay is that “we expect some significant advances

toindicate that 1966 may be our big year.“ Just what is going on to indicate this? Simply .described, the matter revolves around the sex attraction of the male and female, The male leavesthe scent andthe female.follows,._Isolate this and the beetles can all be lead out of town like the Pied Piper lead the rats, Isolating this attrahent and reproducing itisthe big problem, This is known. The male produces the smell and it is contained in the male excrement or fecal pellets. The problem is that the little beetle hardly produces enough: pellets to satisfy the re-: searchers curiosity or need, So, they go looking for beetle trees, Brown or dying pine trees are usually an indication of the malady. On their own 800 acres and on private land in the area, the researchers gather beetle logs, These ate stacked in warm insectaries which bring the beetles out of the logs, These are gathered, refrigerated in a near dormant stage until needed, and separated under a microscope by Sex. The male is then introduced into another log tofeed, removed and placed in a funnel like device which gathers the precious fecal pellets, The odor from the pellets is then removed by hypodermic syringe and introduced into an electronic gadget which measures the beetles reactions to odor, Find the biggest reaction and they have the secret, The re. searchers in Grass Valley have two main problems, One is the slowness of the beetles to produce enough raw material and the second_is the slowness of the present equipment to analyze the chemical and beetle reactions to the varioussmells, There is little that can be done about the slowness of the beetles, but new ¥. equipment is being invented all the time. Why is the sex life of the bark beetle important? According to Pitman, this beetle, about the size of a pencil lead, does more damage to our forests annually than all the forest fires, Attract him to an area where he can be isolated and destroyed and we have cut off one of the greatest menaces to one of the west's biggest industries. All of this drama is going on right outside Grass Valley and hardly anyone knows about it. “We have nothing to advertise, " = GARY PIT'MAN of Grass Valley, Pitman says. Yet two-fourD, one of the most widely used insecticides in this country, was developed and patented through Boyce Thompson research. Money from royalties went back into the institute.to finance further research projects. Sothe beetle war goes on quietly on the outskirts of Grass Valley, but the outcome of this war could have enormous ramifications on the American timber industry, Asthe man said, “the year 1966 could be a bad one for the beetles, “ : ie: project leader at the Boyce Thompson Institute in Grass Valley, removes the well-fed bark beetles from a test pine log. PITMAN AND chemist Alan Relick, a visitor from the Institute's home office in Yonkers, N. Y., check a graph from an electronic device which measures beetle reaction to the smells from various gases injected into it. 9961 ‘9 Arenuef***3033nN AqunoD epeAsn***. pp