Category: Quarantines

REPRINT courtesy of Entomology Today, Research News. See original here: Quarantines Remain Key Part of Emerald Ash Borer Control, Study Finds

By Laurel Downs and Leigh Greenwood

Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is one of the most invasive and destructive tree pests in North America. It continues to spread across the United States and Canada, killing over 90 percent of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) within a few years of establishing in a new area and causing hundreds of millions in economic damage since its initial detection in 2002. Since ash trees are a dominant species in urban environments, the current and projected loss of ash trees in cities imposes exorbitant monetary costs and leads to significant negative impacts on human health and wellbeing.

Management efforts to control the spread of emerald ash borer (EAB) and eradicate the pest in infestation zones have proven difficult due to multiple factors such as natural spread of the insect as well as human behaviors that result in long-distance movements. To reduce long-distance movement of this insect and other forest pests that move in or on firewood, The Nature Conservancy has led the Don’t Move Firewood educational campaign since 2008. The U.S.-based landscape of firewood regulations—such as firewood quarantines that legally limit the inbound or outbound movement of firewood to protected or from regulated areas—has strong impacts on the types of outreach and messages that Don’t Move Firewood communicates to the firewood-using public.

In a study published in February in Conservation Science and Practice, researchers used a complex spatiotemporal model to determine optimal management strategies for emerald ash borer in urban areas. “Understanding how and when to manage is a difficult problem,” says lead researcher Emma Hudgins, Ph.D., “because management action at any one site has ripple effects onto other sites due to changes in dispersal and growth dynamics of the invasive species.” Hudgins, now a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in Australia, led the study while a postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Hudgins and colleagues sought to explore optimization of EAB management in the face of a changing strategic landscape in the U.S. Management efforts have shifted in recent years from a heavy reliance on a federal domestic quarantine to a focus on biological control (or biocontrol) using introduced stingless parasitoid wasps that prey exclusively on EAB eggs and larvae. The United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) rescinded the federal domestic quarantine on EAB completely in January 2021, leaving state authorities with the decision to rescind, retain, or implement their own state-based quarantines.

U.S. federal authorities now allocate the bulk of EAB funding to biocontrol, which comes with its own complications. “Understanding management implications is especially complex with the advancement of biological control technology, where parasitoid species are released such that they themselves spread across an invaded range and control invasive species population densities,” Hudgins says. “Whether this decision was optimal to limit urban ash exposure was untested, and it could be leading to excess tree death.”

To find what management strategies minimize urban tree mortality under the current budget, the researchers derived a pest dispersal model as a mixed-integer linear program integrated with biocontrol and quarantine measures that results in an optimal spatiotemporal pattern of pest control. They then compared their findings with conventional management methods and the current EAB control strategies under USDA APHIS.

According to the model, combining quarantines with biocontrol is the best way to save ash trees. “We discovered that our optimized EAB management strategies, which incorporated quarantines and biocontrol together, consistently outperformed sole reliance on biological control, with a protection of up to 1 million additional street trees and savings of $629 million [U.S.] in tree removal and replacement costs between now and 2050,” Hudgins says.

The model showed optimal strategies not only relied on quarantines in addition to biocontrol, but they performed best with an unexpectedly strong majority of the funding directed toward maintaining effective quarantines around city centers. The study’s authors found that, while any management strategy with at least 20 percent spent on quarantines worked relatively well, the best results were seen when 98-99 percent of the budget was spent on quarantine with only 1-2 percent spent on biological control with parasitoids.

Findings from the study indicate that a coherent and harmonized effort to implement or maintain domestic quarantines in the U.S. could go as far as to save a billion dollars over the next three decades if implemented in a way that considers human behavior and connectivity among urban centers.

As it stands now, however, the regulatory environment affecting firewood movement within the U.S. is inconsistent, with just 18 of 50 states currently holding a partial or full external quarantine applicable to the movement of firewood that is potentially infested with emerald ash borer, leaving the remaining states particularly vulnerable to new infestations.

One example of the current inconsistencies is the difference between Oregon and Washington’s regulations. There is no current firewood or EAB quarantine to regulate the entry of out-of-state firewood into Washington, while its neighbor to the south, Oregon, has both an external firewood quarantine prohibiting the entry of higher-risk firewood and an internal quarantine prohibiting the outbound movement of materials from the area surrounding the only known infestation of emerald ash borer in the western United States.

At The Nature Conservancy, we are confident that the long-distance spread of emerald ash borer can be significantly reduced with appropriate firewood quarantines and a well-informed public. We’re pleased to see that this important study supports what all of our Don’t Move Firewood campaign partners can agree on: The persistent effort to maintain firewood rules and regulations in the public’s eye can and does protect trees.

Hudgins and colleagues intend to adapt their optimization framework for other management issues and species of concern. As stated in the study, “A future goal of this framework is to apply it across pest species to determine if there is predictable spatial patterning in management best practices across species.”

The widespread utilization of their framework in urban and forest health management could deliver invaluable benefits, not only in dollars saved but in the quality of life for countless numbers of people and wildlife that rely on the shade, water quality, environment, and beauty found amidst healthy trees.

NOTE: THIS POST IS FROM NOVEMBER 2018

This fall’s recent open comment period on the proposal to lift the federal quarantine on emerald ash borer brought in well over 140 comments, many of them from national, regional, or statewide groups. In order to facilitate finding and reading the comments that are most pertinent to our partners’ needs and interests, the staff at Don’t Move Firewood have created a linked list of comments sorted into broad groups. Please note this is NOT all the comments, and errors and omissions in this listing may exist. For the full and definitive list of all public comments, please visit Regulations.gov directly.

National or Large Regional Scope Groups:

• Coalition Against Forest Pests
• National Association of State Foresters
• National Plant Board
• Southern Group of State Foresters
• The Nature Conservancy
• Western Governor’s Association

State or Tribal Governments and Agencies:

• Aroostook Band of Micmacs
• California Department of Food & Agriculture
• Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians
• Kansas Forest Service
• Maine Forest Service
• Minnesota Department of Agriculture
• Minnesota Forestry Association
• Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation
• Nebraska Forest Service
• North Dakota Department of Agriculture
• North Dakota Forest Service
• Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
• Oregon Department of Forestry
• Penobscot Nation
• South Dakota Department of Agriculture
• Tennessee Division of Forestry
• Texas A&M Forest Service
• Vermont Dept of Forests, Parks and Recreation and Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry

National Private Industry Groups:

• AmericanHort
• The Scotts Company
• National Wooden Pallet and Container Association

Other Groups:

• Appalachian Trail Conservancy
• California Forest Pest Council
• Center for Invasive Species Prevention
• Clackamas, Clark, Multnomah and Washington (OR) CWMA
• Jefferson County (CO) Invasive Species Management
• Maine Mountain Collaborative
• Maine Woodland Owners
• Metro Council (Portland OR Region)
• Montana Urban and Community Forestry Association
• South Dakota Campground Owners Association
• Tualatin (OR) Soil and Water Conservation District
• West Multnomah (OR) Soil & Water Conservation District

How to Keep Neighborhood Trees Healthy and Resilient in the Aftermath of Hurricanes

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have been taking down countless trees in Texas, Florida, and all the states between them along the Gulf of Mexico. In the aftermath of severe storms like these, trees can get lots of attention and are pointed to as the cause of loss of power and damage to property. However, while some trees do come down in high wind and extreme weather events, the majority of healthy trees survive severe storms, buffer the high winds as the storms come ashore, absorb excess rainfall, and reduce localized flooding.

In the wake of these major storms, it is extremely important to remember that moving storm debris, limbs, and downed trees over long distances can inadvertently spread tree-killing insects to new places. Many areas affected by Hurricane Harvey and Irma are under quarantines that specifically prohibit the long-distance movement of tree-based storm debris (including debris that has been cut into pieces of firewood). These quarantines will depend on exact location, and may include restrictions in place for emerald ash borer, imported fire ants, giant african land snail, and citrus greening (Huanglongbing). The southeastern USA also has widespread infestations of laurel wilt, which is not under federal quarantine but can be transported on storm debris as well.

Storm debris from downed trees and branches should be disposed of using one of the following safer ways: brought to a local solid waste facility (i.e. landfill), brought to a licensed city composting facility, brought to a registered storm debris disposal yard (sometimes called a marshalling yard or area), or used on site for personal firewood. Consult local newspapers and storm information to find out which of the disposal options is best in your area as you get ready to clean up your property.

Tree damaged by Hurricane Harvey in Texas 2017: Flickr user Welscor, Creative Commons License

For future storm safety, it is especially important to remember that trees planted near homes and roads need to be properly pruned to minimize potential damage and failure, especially near power lines. When planting new trees, it is helpful to select a species that will not grow too tall and interfere with power lines to minimize future damage. As cities look to replant choosing the right tree and putting the right tree in the right place will create a more sustainable—and storm resistant—landscape for years to come.

Despite the damage trees can cause in extreme weather events, healthy trees in urban and suburban areas are important for a safer and cleaner urban infrastructure. Trees provide the many benefits to both people and wildlife in city settings:

• Improving water quality by minimizing erosion, slowing the flow of precipitation, and minimizing flooding during heavy rain events
• Mitigating climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air, regulating local climate by lowering daily temperature variation, and reducing energy expenditure on heating and cooling
• Providing shade and improving local air quality by removing air pollutants and producing oxygen
• Creating valuable habitat for wildlife, and shade and a natural environment for city residents

For more information, we recommend visiting:

• The Right Tree in the Right Place information page, by the Arbor Day Foundation
• Firewood Regulation and Recommendation Summaries Map

This blog is based on our popular 2012 blog, The Importance of Trees in Hurricane Sandy

Dear Don’t Move Firewood,

I live in Albuquerque New Mexico and was planning to make a trip to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. What if any, are the restrictions for moving a pickup load of Hickory, Oak, Cherry and Apple back to NM with me when I return? Does this require any special permit? I plan to use the wood for heat and smoking meat. 

Yours,

Barbecue Lover

Dear Barbecue Lover,

Thank you for asking, as the answer to this is quite clear. It is illegal to move a truckload of cut loose firewood from Pennsylvania to New Mexico due to multiple federal quarantines pertaining to firewood and forest pests. There is no permit process that I know of for personal use firewood to be moved over this great of a distance, and across the two federal quarantine boundary areas. I would urge you not to take this firewood back to New Mexico for both legal, and ecological, reasons. I hope that instead, you can find a good local source of firewood within the state of New Mexico for your needs! —

 

The two most obvious quarantines you would be violating are:

– Emerald Ash Borer Quarantine or General Information

– European Gypsy Moth Quarantine or General Information

 

In conclusion- there are significant restrictions and you’d be violating the law, so you should not move firewood from PA to NM. Thank you!

 

 

When most people hear the word “Quarantine,” they think of isolating a person that’s sick with some dangerous, contagious disease. When we talk about a forest pest related quarantine, the underlying concept is the same– it is just that instead of not letting people move around, we’re often talking about not moving firewood around.

 

Quarantines that relate to forest pests can work two basic ways- (1) preventing potentially infested materials, like firewood, from moving out of an known infested area, or (2) preventatively designating areas where no potentially infested materials could be brought in at all. The official term for potentially contagious or infested materials (things like firewood, nursery trees, brush waste) is “regulated items,” and each forest pest has a different list of appropriate regulated items, according to how its specific life cycle works.

 

(1) Much like a human quarantine for a contagious illness keeps the infected person from exposing new groups of people to whatever they’ve got, the first kind of a forest pest quarantine keeps people from moving regulated items out of infested places and into uninfested locations where they could infest new groups of trees- like uninfested campgrounds, forests, or neighborhoods. In some cases, more than just firewood can spread forest pests, so a quarantine might include not just firewood, but also other regulated items like nursery trees (like emerald ash borer), or outdoor furniture (like spongy moth), or even outdoor potted plants (like imported fire ant.) One important caveat about quarantined areas is that while it might be technically legal to move materials from one side of a county or state to the other side, that action might still be spreading unwanted pests- so it is still not a good idea. Further, when it comes to forest pest quarantines, often the federal and state rules are different- and the more “strict” rules always apply first. For instance, even though both Western Massachusetts and the bottom half of New York are part of the large multistate quarantined region for emerald ash borer, due to New York State laws, it is still illegal for campers to bring untreated firewood from Western Massachusetts into New York State for their campfire.

 

(2) The second kind of quarantine is a more preventative measure, and it is called an External Quarantine. Instead of trying to keep current infestations in a confined area, an external quarantine is trying to preserve the health of the forests by blocking out any infested materials coming from elsewhere. For instance, Maine has an external quarantine that prohibits bringing any untreated firewood into the state of Maine, to protect their state’s very important timber resources from all possible forest pest threats.

 

For more information on the status of various forest pest quarantines in your area, please look up your state or province on our map.