New quarantines on firewood are helping reduce the spread of invasive insects

By Gabriel Martinez
Great Lakes Echo
November 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is placing quarantines around the state to contain an outbreak of invasive species, mainly by way of transporting firewood infested with pests. Laurel Downsthe forest health conservation coordinator for the national Don’t Move Firewood campaign, said when insects get introduced into a new ecosystem from global trade, sometimes through packaging material and mostly by firewood transportation, they typically lack any natural predators in the new environment. …State quarantines have been placed in Michigan on the mountain pine beetle (all firewood), the balsam woolly adelgid (fir) and the hemlock wooly adelgid (hemlock with needles and twigs), according to the report. To be transported legally to a quarantined area, firewood must be treated to a specific standard. …Michigan is one of two states working on implementing a firewood certification program in 2025, according to the report.

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