 Instead of affecting the whole area subject to budworm infestation, some past outbreaks have occurred in separate regions.For example, in the lower St. Lawrence and Gaspé regions, radial-growth studies of balsam fir and white spruce confirmed outbreaks known to have taken place in lower St. Lawrence in 1878 and 1912.The Gaspé area was thought to have escaped those outbreaks, but Blais found that the 1912 outbreak had covered more than 2 million ha in that region.