{"id":2359,"date":"2016-02-16T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=2359"},"modified":"2025-10-17T11:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:02:43","slug":"breaking-the-budworm","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/breaking-the-budworm\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking the Budworm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Breaking the Budworm\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In a society geared toward quick fixes, patience is a virtue \u2014 especially when you work with trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J. David Miller, a professor in Carleton\u2019s Chemistry Department, is a winner at this year\u2019s prestigious NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation for an environmentally sensitive breakthrough that will reduce the devastating impact of the eastern spruce budworm on the forestry sector in eastern North America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller\u2019s discovery, the result of a nearly 20-year-long research collaboration with the woodlands division of J.D. Irving Ltd. (JDI), was inspired by a chance conversation he had at a conference three decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n

[wide-image image=”2453″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A colleague wondered aloud whether endophytes (fungi that live inside conifer needles) may produce toxins, propelling Miller into what he describes as \u201ca journey that started as all scientific journeys should: curiosity-driven research that led us to a company that had its own innovative ideas to share.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cTogether, we discovered things that we did not anticipate, that were not known, about an ecosystem that\u2019s really critical to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Research in the 1990s supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) allowed the discovery of endophytic fungi in the Acadian forest that produce insect toxins in the needles of conifer seedlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA bunch of us went to NSERC and asked for a lot of money,\u201d says Miller, \u201cto essentially go fishing. This was an enormous project, like looking for a needle in a haystack without knowing what the needle looked like.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out that conifer endophytes are transmitted to seedlings as they begin to grow on the forest floor surrounded by cast needles from mature trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Carleton
Carleton Chemistry professor J. David Miller is a winner at this year\u2019s prestigious NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miller, together with Greg Adams of JDI and Maritime Innovation Ltd., investigated how to replicate this process in greenhouses. As a result, JDI now mass\u2010produces endophytic fungi and has planted more than 100 million endophyte\u2010enhanced seedlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trees that result have increased tolerance to the spruce budworm \u2014 enough of a resistance to significantly reduce the impact of an infestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a perfect story about the arc of science,\u201d says Miller, who has also used the project to give students hands-on access to invaluable training. \u201cNothing good happens quickly, in particular with trees, because they take a very long time to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JDI didn\u2019t leap at the opportunity to work with Miller initially. But he received a fax on Nov. 18, 1997 that\u2019s still posted on his office wall. \u201cWe\u2019d like to talk,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI was given an opportunity,\u201d says Miller, \u201cto ask the right questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The eastern spruce budworm is the most damaging forest insect pest in the country. In the 1970s and 1980s, budworm outbreaks affected 50 million hectares, destroying hundreds of millions of cubic metres of timber and taking a big bite out the economy in eastern Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n

[wide-image image=”2454″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs major spruce budworm epidemics occur approximately every 50 to 100 years, finding a sustainable and proactive solution to this devastating problem is of great importance,\u201d Kim Matheson, Carleton\u2019s former vice-president (Research and International), wrote in a letter in support of Miller\u2019s Synergy Award nomination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe partnership between Prof. Miller and J.D. Irving, fostered for nearly two decades, has led to remarkable co-creation of knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Miller and Carleton University have engaged exceptionally well with our team of forest pest experts to work on problems that affect the entire country,\u201d wrote James D. Irving, the co-Chief Executive Officer of JDI. \u201cTogether we have developed basic science into applied methods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller, who is from Saint John, N.B., the province where most of JDI\u2019s forestry lands are located, has a personal interest in this type of research. His family has a woodlot outside the city, and he has spent a lot time walking among the trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller was an undergraduate student at the University of New Brunswick when the last bad budworm epidemic hit his home province, Nova Scotia and Maine. Keeping the forests green, he recalls, necessitated a spraying program using chemicals that Canada no longer deploys for pest management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today, thanks to his collaboration with JDI, which provided the white spruce seedlings and nursery space for him to test theories, tree and forest growth knowledge, foresters have a more effective and environmentally sustainable tool. And this proprietary technology could have applications in the battle against other pests and pathogens. Funding for this research has come from J.D. Irving Ltd., NSERC, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency \u2013 Atlantic Innovation Fund (ACOA), National Research Council (NRC-IRAP), Mitacs and SERG International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller is the second Carleton professor in two years to win an NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation. In 2015, Richard Amos, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, was part of a University of Waterloo-led team that won the prize for the formation of an academic-industry partnership focusing on waste rock that results from mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScience is a team sport,\u201d says Miller, who was celebrated on Parliament Hill and at Rideau Hall on Feb. 16. \u201cNone of this would have been possible without lots of different kinds of expertise. This award reflects a lot of work by a lot of people over a long of time. And it\u2019s a recognition of the risks that JDI took.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Ottawa events, Miller went to the Ontario Legislature in Toronto to meet with MPPs as part of the Council of Ontario Universities\u2019 Research Matters gathering, an annual showcase of game-changing research at the province\u2019s universities. This year\u2019s theme was collaborative partnerships with industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos by NSERC; Lead photo by Luther Caverly<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a society geared toward quick fixes, patience is a virtue \u2014 especially when you work with trees. J. David Miller, a professor in Carleton\u2019s Chemistry Department, is a winner at this year\u2019s prestigious NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation for an environmentally sensitive breakthrough that will reduce the devastating impact of the eastern spruce budworm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13],"cu_story_tag":[1919,1925],"class_list":["post-2359","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science","cu_story_tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98397,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/2359\/revisions\/98397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=2359"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=2359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}