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Maybe you’ve seen it- the bumper sticker that says, “Go Ahead, Move Firewood. The bugs will get there eventually anyway.” And you may be able to guess that here at Don’t Move Firewood, we don’t really appreciate that sentiment. Because while some bugs might get there eventually…

 

Wait… what? Did we just say the bugs WILL get there eventually? OK, not exactly. This is complicated.

 

Let’s take the case of European Spongy Moth. In the 140 years since spongy moth arrived, it has since infested roughly 1/4 of the country. The moth sadly does quite well in native North American forests, so the slow expansion of the edge of the spongy moth territory is indeed inevitable.

 

But in the case of a pest like the Asian longhorned beetle, they shouldn’t and won’t get there eventually. The Asian longhorned beetle moves slowly and doesn’t fly far. Eradication of every ALB in all the known infestations is totally possible- if the right steps are taken, like not moving firewood and reporting all bug sightings.

 

That’s why we here at Don’t Move Firewood strenously disagree with this bumper sticker- there are too many situations in which moving firewood is completely making the problem bigger, worse, and much more expensive.

 

But wait! Let’s look back at spongy moth. Right now, the spread of this pest is curtailed by a slew of really effective programs, including trapping, local eradication, phermone releases (this keeps the moths from breeding so effectively), public education, and of course Don’t Move Firewood efforts. These efforts will combine to protect 160 million acres of trees from death by moth over the next 20 years. That is a LOT of trees that will shade your street, homes, and natural places for another two decades if you live somewhere like Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois… states on the edge of the spongy moth line.

 

Wouldn’t you rather that spongy moth takes another THREE HUNDRED years to reach the Pacific Ocean? Not a three day road trip in contaminated firewood, but rather three CENTURIES? That’s the goal of Don’t Move Firewood. We have hope that your actions, and the actions of your friends, will make a difference for today, tomorrow, and even hundreds of years.

 

Branching out on the Lawn at Tanglewood

by Sean Mahoney

While it may seem a deviation from our regular amped up musical taste of banjo and “bumping bass” (I must credit Natalie for introducing me to that phrase) the Don’t Move Firewood crew found ourselves fitting right in with the picnickers streaming onto the lawn in Lenox for the 66^th Tanglewood on Parade.

 

The weather was perfect for the occasion. Not a menacing cloud was above us as the soothing sounds of string quartets made their way from the garden.  What a relaxing respite from a long summer on the road! I recommend to anyone traveling through the Berkshires to spend at least one night out on the lawn watching the night creep in over Stockbridge Bowl and experience what Tanglewood is all about.

 

 

In the spirit of Tanglewood I have included a small artistic expression of my emotions for such a wonderful place.

 

Warm Soft Grass

Rolling Hills Afar

Summer Wind

Woodwind Light

Maestro Conducts by Sight

Starry Cool Night

Candles Sleep

Notes Move Away

 Slumber Taunts

If you are curious to read more about how the Boston Symphony Orchestra made its summer home in the Berkshires please click here.

 

See you on the lawn with your Don’t Move Firewood fan in hand!

The Don’t Move Firewood  trip to the Newport Folk Festival can only be described by one word: Adventure.

by Natalie Garcia

 

The weather for the weekend called for rain. Fortunately all of day one, Poseidon was a fan of all the awesome music that was playing and decided to keep the rain away. We got the weekend started off right, and I was really excited by how many people we were able to talk to — more than 1,000 total! I was prize wheeling like it’s my job (wait, maybe that’s because it is?).

 

It was great to see the enthusiasm in people that knew about the firewood issue, and even more awesome to talk to new people that hadn’t heard about us, promised to let others know, and to not move their firewood anymore. One funny thing about the Newporters was that they kept telling us that handing out Frisbees was “against the rules” – who knew that all of these hipsters were such goodie two shoes?

 

Then of course, when it was time for us to pack up for the night, the heavens opened above Fort Adams State Park and the whole place was soaked. Great.

 

How were we and the 10,000 other people going to make it out of this Fort dry? The answer was, VERY SLOWLY. After the first sound of thunder, it was pretty much a mass exodus out of there, and since we were parked in the very back we were very stuck. It took us 1 hour of waiting – reading in our car – and one hour of traffic – watching a movie and getting a treat from happy festival streakers. Yup. Two gentlemen decided to let everyone stuck in traffic have a much needed giggle.

 

 

Then somehow on our return trip, Google maps decided to send us through Connecticut without me knowing. Basically I got us lost, and I had to navigate us to back to the Mass Turnpike. There was a silver lining to this detour, the Dirt Store and Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaug… two incredibly bizarre and random things we spotted on our short (de)tour of New England.

 

 

L.E.A.F.s rustling in the Bluegrass @ Grey Fox

by Sean Mahoney

 

Every summer, four thousand wayward travelers descend upon the pristine hayfields at the Walsh Farm in Oak Hill, NY to the Greyfox Bluegrass festival. Sounds of banjo and fiddle can be heard around nearly every campsite, and even a hoot and a holler from the dance stage.

 

Hanging out at the festival for four days is awesome enough, but on Friday morning after the rains lifted off the fields, something even more amazing than the actual festival happened; we were greeted by fresh outreach reinforcements courtesy of the Nature Conservancy’s LEAF program.

 

That day, Natalie and I had the pleasure of working with Bless, Gerardo, Mike, and their summer mentor Jim who were spending a month long internship learning and working alongside Conservancy staff in the western Massachusetts.

 

After getting acquainted with some of the quirks of folk life, including banjos, small children busking for change with scratchy covers of “She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain” and “Sally Goodin”, flowing tie-dyed pants, men in kilts, and the infamous caravans of VW busses, we were able to convince Bless and Jim to get in the festival spirit by putting on the emerald ash borer costume.

At first they were a little nervous about spreading the Don’t Move Firewood message, but soon enough it was hard  to keep them supplied with materials to hand out because they were moving in full swing and talking to nearly everyone that passed by. Ready with extra Frisbees in hand, Mike was ready to get the message out to campers of all ages.

 

Thanks to the help of the entire LEAF crew, we were able to reach over 2,400 people with the message that transporting firewood can be dangerous to the health of the forests and trees.  It was welcome change to have our outreach team nearly triple in size- I wish we could keep them for all of our future festivals lined up this summer! Natalie and I really missed their energy and humor on the road to Newport Folk Festival the following weekend.

 

So here’s a final message to the LEAF crew: Enjoy the rest of the summer guys, and keep an eye out for Asian longhorned beetle and emerald ash borer when you return home to Boston.  

Wasp catching with the Wasp Watchers of Massachusetts

by Natalie Garcia

 

I have never hunted anything in my life, well not until now at least. In July, the DMF team was very lucky to be able to participate in Wasp Watchers Massachusetts, a citizen scientist program that uses native wasps to monitor for signs of the emerald ash borer. I was ecstatic to run around and hunt wasps that were returning with their prey, cause who doesn’t love the thrill of the chase?

First thing Monday morning on a hot, dry, beautiful summer day, we were off and it was perfect weather for pursuing Cerceris fumipennis or the smoky-winged wasp. This small wasp loves to prey upon buprestid beetles in order to raise their young and can be key to EAB early detection. We were searching for the females, because they build their nests in dry, sandy areas and are the ones that do the actual searching for beetles to provide food to their young.

 

And let me tell you, these are some hard working ladies. When we arrived almost all of the nests were empty; they were already out hunting for borers and beetles. After about 30 minutes of looking at nests and becoming familiar with the wasp homes, some Cerceris began to return to their nests with their fresh prey.

 

I felt like I was 8 years old again. It was fascinating how many different borers we were able to collect. In a little under an hour we caught 10 beetles. Not so bad for first timers! We were even able to catch an Agrilus species borer, which is in the same family as EAB and the genus that Wasp Watchers are really interested in finding. Total score. What more could we ask for?

 

Fortunately, this was not the only time that we’ll be able to adventure into the Berkshires and search for these beetles. Sean and I are going to be able to survey about once a week and we will make sure to keep you posted on any exciting finds we have in the future. Can’t wait to feel the wind in my hair, with my net in my hand, while monitoring for invasive bugs!

 

Resources:

https://massnrc.org/pests/blog/2012/06/wasp-watchers-wanted-2.html

 

Editor's note:

The remarkable effectiveness of wasp monitoring was underscored by the recent discovery of emerald ash borer in Connecticut by state wasp monitoring efforts. To learn more, visit this press release: https://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?Q=508244&A=4173