Moth Superintendent

The local Moth Superintendent was the town officer charged with suppressing the gypsy moth and the brown-tail moth under the state moth law of 1905 (Chapter 381 of the Acts of 1905), working under the State Forester. T. Emery Smith, then Tree Warden, signed Billerica's first report as Local Superintendent for the year ending February 1906. The office was appointed, and it was usually held by the Tree Warden; in 1910 the Selectmen, in a dispute with Tree Warden Francis J. Dolan over the moth accounts, appointed Henry E. Marion instead. Dolan served as Moth Superintendent for most of 1906 to 1942. The moth work was later carried on by the Tree Department, and from 1948 the title was combined as "Moth Superintendent and Tree Warden" and then "Tree, Park and Moth Superintendent". The title last appears in the town reports around 1991.

John W. Bostwick, Moth Superintendent 1915-1917, 1919-1920 and 1930-1931, was also Highway Superintendent 1920-1924.