. The Canadian field-naturalist. 124 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 113. Painstaking fieldwork was required to demonstrate the harmful effects of the pesticide feni- trothion on forest songbirds. This picture was taken during the summer of 1979 while Peter Pearce (/.) and two assistants were measuring the growth rate of nestlings in a control plot (Photo credit: P. Barkhouse). arguably the most controversial forest pest control program in Canadian history. Starting in the spring of 1952, squadrons of spray planes blanketed the spruce and Balsam Fir forests of the province annu- ally with D
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 124 The Canadian Field-Naturalist Vol. 113. Painstaking fieldwork was required to demonstrate the harmful effects of the pesticide feni- trothion on forest songbirds. This picture was taken during the summer of 1979 while Peter Pearce (/.) and two assistants were measuring the growth rate of nestlings in a control plot (Photo credit: P. Barkhouse). arguably the most controversial forest pest control program in Canadian history. Starting in the spring of 1952, squadrons of spray planes blanketed the spruce and Balsam Fir forests of the province annu- ally with DDT. The application reduced but did not eliminate the voracious hordes of Spruce Budworm caterpillars. It also killed a wide variety of other for- est and aquatic invertebrates. Did this constitute a hazard to wildlife? Evidence was mounting that DDT had a negative effect on the health and productivity of raptorial and fish-eating birds. By the early 1960s, a search had begun for other chemical pesticides that would be less damag- ing to wildlife. In 1963 and 1964, a cholinesterase- inhibiting organophosphate compound called phos- phamidon was field tested in New Brunswick. Early indications were that it was less harmful than DDT to nontargeted species, while still effective against the budworm.'° In 1964, Graham Cooch enlisted David Fowle and two of his graduate students at York University to undertake an in-depth assessment of the impact of phosphamidon on wildlife. Peter A. Pearce, then an employee of the Timber Management Branch of the New Brunswick Department of Lands and Mines, was seconded by the province to work with them. What Fowle and his team found that summer^' was enough to justify continuation of CWS support for the project over the next three years. By 1967, CWS^ hired Peter Pearce to work full-time on the project. Forest insect sprays were the principal focus of his work for the next 25 years. Fowle's report on the four-year study confirmed that operational us
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