File:1902. Seated (L-R) H.E. Burke, Asst. Forest Expert; J.L. Webb, Asst. Forest Expert; and A.D. Hopkins, in charge of Forest Insect Investigations. Standing is F.C. Pratt (37317671801).jpg

Seated (left to right): H.E. Burke, Assistant Forest Expert; J.L. Webb, Assistant Forest Expert; and A.D. Hopkins, in charge of Forest Insect Investigations. Standing in the background is F.C. Pratt, Assistant in Truck Crop Investigations. In the first office occupied by forest entomologists in the old insectary, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, D.C.

Photo by: Unknown Date: December 1902

Credit: USDA Forest Service, Region 6, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection. Source: H.E. Burke Collection digital files; Regional Office; Portland, Oregon.

This photo and the following excerpt are from: H.E. Burke. 1946. My Recollections of the First Years in Forest Entomology. Berkeley, California. 37 p. <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/recollections-on-forest-entomology.pdf" rel="nofollow">www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/recollections-on-forest...</a>

"As the leading authority in the United States on forest entomology, Dr. A.D. Hopkins was chosen by the Division of Entomology, U.S. Department of Agriculture, to make an investigation of the Pacific Coast forests during the summer of 1899. On this trip he found the western pine beetle and the mountain pine beetle killing number of trees in the pine forests of California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

One stop on the trip was at the Washington State College at Pullman. Here Hopkins visited C.V. Piper, entomologist of the Washington Experiment Station. Together they made a trip into the pine forests of western Idaho to study various insects, one of these the western pine beetle.

As a result of this trip, Piper induced one of his students, J.L. Webb, to take up forest insects as a major. Webb, therefore, was probably the first college student of forest insects in the United States. Webb collected forest insects in western Idaho during 1900 and 1901 and in studying them corresponded with Hopkins.

In 1901 the Chief of the Bureau of Forestry of the Phillipines requested Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the Bureau of Forestry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to get him a forest entomologist. Pinchot passed this request on to Hopkins who replied there were none, but that he could train one if given time. This suggestion was followed and Webb, the only known student, was appointed a field assistant in the Bureau of Forestry in the fall of 1901 and sent to Hopkins at the University of West Virginia to train for the Phillipine position. ... The appointment of Webb by USDA to work on insects under Hopkins stirred Howard, Chief of the Division of Entomology, into action. He started to work toward the establishment of an Office of Forest Insect Investigations in the Division.

In the meantime the Black Hills Beetle had started its destructive work in the yellow pine forests of the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming.

In May 1902 Webb was appointed an Assistant Forest Expert in the Bureau of Forestry and sent to the Black Hills to investigate the trouble under the direction of Hopkins, who was to be appointed July 1 Chief of the new Office of Forest Insect Investigations in the Division of Entomology.

Since Webb was expected to take the Phillipine position, an assitant to take his place was needed. I [H.E. Burke] had collected some with Webb in 1900 and 1901 and was recommended by him for this appointment. Being already in the Division of Entomology on a three-month appointment to work on the codling moth at Boise, Idaho, I was appointed October 1, 1902, as a Special Field Agent of the Divsion to investigate the damage to forests and forest trees by insects and was sent to the Black Hills to receive training from Webb. On November 1, 1902, I was appointed an Assistant Forest Expert in the Bureau of Forestry and ordered to Washington to work on forest insects under Hopkins, following Webb in by about a week.

The Office of Forest Insect Investigations therefore completed its first six months with Dr. A.D. Hopkins, an appointee of the Division of Entomology, in charge, with J.L. Webb and myself, appointees of the Bureau of Forestry, as assistants. During the spring of 1903, W.F. Fiske, Assistant State Entomologist of Georgia was appointed a special field agent in the Divsion of Entomology and assigned to work on forest insects under Dr. Hopkins. All expenses for the work were paid by the Bureau of Forestry.

This organization contined until July 1, 1904, when the Division of Entomology became a Bureau and Webb and I were transferred from the Bureau of Forestry to the Bureau of Entomology. Webb did, however, spend the field season of 1903 in the Phillipines as an appointee of the Phillipine Bureau of Science.

It was during the winter of 1902-03 that Dr. Hopkins suggested to Webb and myself that each of us specialize on some important family of forest insects as Hopkins had specialized on the Scolytidae. Webb selected the Cerambycidae and I the Burprestidae. Dr. Hopkins also submitted a plan for dividing the United States into for major forest areas for forest insect field work with a man specializing on the insect problems in each area. The areas suggested were the Eastern, the Southern, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Coast. I selected the Pacific Coast mainly because I was from that section and already familiar with some of the conditions."

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>