The reason for this good cheer comes out in Keen’s reply [32] to Craighead on September 9, 1931. A major mistake had been made by the new Bureau man, Buckhorn. Keen states,
Your two letters of September 2 in regard to the Crater Lake project are received. When Buckhorn called me by long distance this spring and told me that they had found 10,000 more trees on the Crater and that Solinsky was wiring for more money, I assumed of course that another ‘blow-up’ had occurred. I must confess I was considerably taken back on visiting the area and seeing what an insignificant amount of infestation had caused all the stir. Buckhorn too feels considerably chagrined at all the excitement which his informal verbal report to Solinsky that “they had found lots of bug trees” caused. The new center is not over 500 acres in extent and contains about 1500 trees of the 1930 attack. There are without question 10,000 trees in the southwest corner of the Park, but there is lots of difference between having that number concentrated in one place or scattered over 25,000 acres.
Keen continues,
Supt. [E.C.] Solinsky and Frank Solinsky both believe that even one bug tree left in the Park is a potential menace and will undo all of the accomplishments of the control work. It is their idea that enough money should be secured this coming year to treat all the remaining infestation in the Park down to the last tree, or just as nearly as that is humanly possible. The theory of treating epidemic infestation and leaving endemic doesn’t appeal to them, and although we have never gotten all the epidemic infestation as yet, it is hard to convince them that such a treatment would be satisfactory.
Keen agreed with Craighead’s suggestion to turn surveys over to the Park, as follows (see footnote 32):
Your suggestion about putting the responsibility of the annual surveys on the Park Service under our general supervision has my hearty endorsement. In fact it is the plan we have been working under on the Crater in theory at least. Godfrey was supposed to assist me last season, but didn’t have much time to give to it. This season Supt. Solinsky and I agreed that the survey should be a cooperative affair and he gave a lot of help on it. This next month when Buckhorn goes back to check up on the fall attacks, the new Chief Ranger, Frank Solinsky and two other spotters furnished by the Park Service will be assigned to assist him. It will then be largely a Park survey made under our general supervision. They all have a very high regard for Buckhorn on the Crater and he and Frank Solinsky, who has been placed in charge of the control work for the Park, work together very smoothly.
What was happening was that heavy centers of infestation were found on Forest Service and private lands around the park. Some of these areas (Sun Mountain, for example) were only 3 or 4 miles from the park boundaries—within flying distance for the beetles. So the entire beetle control question was much bigger than the park, and people were beginning to question if complete control of the outbreak in the park was feasible.
