THE first smell that strikes your nose as you enter the Museum of the Bermuda Historical Society on Queen Street in Hamilton is the distinct, strangely calming scent of Bermudian cedar.

The tables and chairs are carved from it; it can be found in the walls and windows; the floor is a glossy cedar shine. The house is a celebration of wood-encased beauty.

But as much of this oak appears to be taken for granted in this place, it remains a precious commodity on the island, with only a few healthy cedars growing in Bermuda's nature reserves.

Before the 1940s, there was once a literal cedar forest blanketing Bermuda: the arrival of a virulent species of insect changed all that, decimating most of the forest in a matter of months.

James Munro, who is currently wrapping up his PhD as an entomologist, put forward a thesis that won him the Bermuda Historical Society Award for his extensive historic research into the decline of the Bermudian cedar.

The Bermuda Historical Society has always committed itself to preserving every aspect of the island that made it what it is today.

Mr. Munro has been given the honour of being the recipient of the Bermuda Historical Society Award, offered every two years to an exceptional Bermudian graduate who has studied the history of the island. In person, James Munro is a friendly, unassuming man, but further discussion proves that he's certainly earned his award.

"I've always been interested in the history of the Bermudian cedar," said Mr. (soon to be Dr.) Munro, a native of the island. "The forest in the 1940s was completely wiped out by an invader, in this case two scale insects, which decimated the entire island.

"What essentially happened was that two scale insects came in from California on nursery stock. Somehow they managed to escape quarantine, and the Bermudian cedar had evolved in isolation for so long that these insects exploded and basically wiped out every cedar in Bermuda."

James Munro was born and raised in Bermuda and attended Saltus Grammar School, but his interest in insects was triggered by something about as far away from the classroom as you can get.

"Basically, what inspired me to get into insects was fly-fishing, and I started learning about aquatic insects, insects that lived in the streams.

"That's what really got me into entomology. I decided to go back to college for a master's, and my subject was in fisheries ecology. From there, I bounced around and ended up in Montana, working with aquatic insects.

"The opportunity came along to pursue a PhD at Riverside California working with itty-bitty wasps."

He added good-naturedly: "I never thought I would do that, but that's where I ended up."

When asked about the nature of his thesis, Mr. Munro responded: "What I'm doing is describing new species of this one genus of parasitic wasp. Whether or not they're beneficial insects, in the terms of using biological control, remains to be debated.

"But until you can actually put a name on something, it's very difficult to study its biology and ecology, so I'm setting the groundwork for the study of these wasps. Their closest relatives are extremely useful in biological control for pestiferous insects. There are 90 described species, and I have easily 50 new species from Ecuador alone to describe.

"My association with the Bermuda Historical Society is because one of the wasps that I studied was actually one of the insects introduced to try to control the cedar blight. Having grown up in Bermuda, being surrounded by Bermuda cedar, it was just extremely interesting.

"So I started delving into the history of the Bermuda cedar epidemic. They introduced at least 53 different types of insect to control the scale insects, and mine was one of them. I'm in the fourth year of my thesis, and I hope to have it wrapped up by next year."

nursery stock, which the scale insects allegedly arrived in, belonged to Carbon Petroleum Dubbs, an American oil baron (his father invented the fractionating tower used in oil refineries) who owned the Chelston estate in Paget.

According to urban legend, one of the invasive insect species arrived in Bermuda on Mr. Dubbs' ornamental plants. Due to his well-to-do status, Mr. Dobbs was allowed to display the plants without any thorough screening by Bermudian agricultural officials,

There is very little in the way of evidence to substantiate this rumour, other than a few facts listed by Dr. David Wingate, a former Government Conservation Officer and now retired.

"There were two traumatic events that seemed to occur simultaneously," Dr. Wingate said. "One was the building of the airport and the advent of a lot of commercial air traffic. The other was the 'coincidental' demise of the cedars, which occurred at the same time.

"The accelerated rate that invasive species could be brought to Bermuda ? once there were aircrafts ? new plants, animals and insects could arrive in hours rather than the days and weeks it used to take on ships.

"The increase in air travel increased the likelihood of new species coming in accidentally. One of the invasive insects was identified as coming in on ornamental cedars, imported from California by C.P. Dubbs."

The two insects that proved so devastating to Bermuda's environment were the oyster-shell scale and the juniper scale, scientifically recognised as and The oyster-shell was first found on cedars near Tucker's Town in 1944.

The juniper was found on the same host the following year, and by 1948 the juniper had almost completely replaced the oyster-shell and proceeded to destroy the majority of Bermuda's cedar forest.

"Only a person who has lived during the time when the forest was still around can realise just how devastating this was. The forest went from foliage to stark desolation," said Shirley Pearman of the education committee of the Bermuda Historical Society.

"It's very exciting that one young man would come along and offer these answers, because we've never had the answers before."

"I just remember these skeletons dotting the landscape extensively while I was growing up," said John Cox, a Bermuda historian. "I don't remember the cedar forest at all. This has everything to do with our heritage, which is why this directly relates to the Bermuda Historical Society."

But how would the knowledge of a disaster from the 1940s be of any relevance today?

"What we're looking at is biological invasion of the island," said Mr. Munro. "Bermuda has certainly had its invasions, from king toads to predatory snails, and we've had to bring in other species to eliminate these pests, and of course the island's ecology continues to be damaged.

"We're looking at a situation that can be stopped, if people are more careful of what's brought into the island, and start conserving the island from non-endemic species. In light of the recent acceleration of international travel, that's always crucial to know."

l Mr. Munro delivered a well-received lecture on the Bermudian cedar and the future of the island's ecology at the Museum of the Bermuda Historical Society on July 5. Following his presentation he received another scholarship, this one from the English Speaking Union, to help him complete his studies in California.