Governor Janet Mills is proposing $2 million in funding to fight an impending budworm infestation in Maine's spruce and fir trees.
The spruce budworm is native to Maine's spruce-fir forests, and usually isn't a problem, in normal population years.
But in epidemic years, when the population explodes, the budworm becomes of the most damaging forest insects in North America. An outbreak in the 1970s and 1980s cost the timber industry hundreds of millions of dollars and devastated millions of acres of Maine forest.
State inspectors now say the budworms are poised to strike again this spring.
The $2 million in state funds will cover Maine's share of a $15 million early intervention pesticide program, proposed as part of a federal disaster relief bill.
The plan is to spray 300,000 acres of forests in northern Maine, targeting budworm larvae.
Landowners will have to contribute to the budworm efforts too, but lawmakers are still working out what that might cost.