e., recovery period) (Alfaro et al., 1982). Little is known about the long-term WSB disturbance history in the Cariboo Forest Region of central interior BC. Systematic Forest Insect and Disease Surveys (FIDS), which began in the early 1950s, first documented WSB outbreaks in 1974 (Erikson, 1992), and by the late-1990s over 200,000 hectares were experiencing Selleck PLX4032 moderate to severe defoliation (Westfall and Ebata, 2000–2011). Since that time, WSB defoliation has occurred episodically across the BC interior and in 2003 increased to encompass >500,000 hectares (Maclauchlan et al., 2006). Overlay analyses in the

Thompson–Okanagan Forest Region, immediately south of the Cariboo Forest Region, suggests that defoliation since the 1980s is historically unprecedented in duration and extent (Maclauchlan et al., AZD2281 cost 2006). The recent history of defoliation in the Thompson-Okanagan Forest Region suggests that WSB may be expanding its range northward into the Douglas-fir

forests of the adjoining Cariboo Forest Region in response to ongoing climate change (Murdock et al., 2012). Given that WSB defoliation in this region would result in significant depletions in the assumed timber supply (BCMFR, 2007 and Woods et al., 2010), developing a comprehensive understanding of long-term forest-budworm interactions is essential for updating current forest management strategies (Shepherd, 1994 and BCMFR, 1995). The purpose of this study was to develop multi-century reconstructions of WSB outbreaks in the Cariboo

Forest Region using dendrochronological techniques. Specifically, we sought to determine the historical frequency of WSB outbreaks; the degree of regional outbreak synchrony; and the periodicity of outbreaks across multiple centuries. Dendrochronology has been previously used in southern BC and in the western 5-Fluoracil United States (US) to reconstruct WSB outbreak histories, as well as to provide temporal and spatial insights on outbreak dynamics across multiple centuries (Swetnam and Lynch, 1989, Swetnam and Lynch, 1993, Ryerson et al., 2003, Campbell et al., 2005, Campbell et al., 2006, Alfaro et al., 2014 and Flower et al., 2014). These studies have demonstrated the periodic nature of outbreaks (Hadley and Veblen, 1993 and Alfaro et al., 2014), their spatial synchrony across scales (Swetnam and Lynch, 1989, Hadley and Veblen, 1993 and Campbell et al., 2006), and offer insights as to how forest management activities influence outbreak dynamics (Maclauchlan and Brooks, 2009). Historical WSB outbreaks are identified by detecting periods of sustained growth suppression in Douglas-fir tree-ring records (Swetnam and Lynch, 1989 and Alfaro et al., 1982). Feeding by WSB on current year buds and foliage reduces or eliminates apical growth during each year of defoliation.