[SCA-AE] Ban on transporting ash and firewood into and out of Allegheny, Butler, Beaver and Lawrence counties

[Iain mac an Bhaird]

The results of last week's survey by the USDA, PADA and Forestry 
Service is complete.  The short of it is: the ban on transporting 
firewood is not likely to be lifted.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07181/798371-113.stm

State's ash trees in danger of extinction
Destructive beetle found in Cranberry poses risk to hardwood

Saturday, June 30, 2007
By Dan Majors, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The first evidence of the expected demise of Pennsylvania's ash tree 
population was found this week by two young women, college students 
serving as summer interns for the state Department of Agriculture.

Working as a team, they were searching along the Pennsylvania 
Turnpike for signs of the emerald ash borer, a tiny destructive 
beetle that has wiped out more than 20 million ash trees in five 
states. Tired, the interns pulled off the highway in Cranberry, where 
they saw signs that the insect had infested an ash tree on the lot of 
a First National Bank.

As they surveyed the damage, one of the women suddenly touched the 
arm of the other.

"Amber, stand still," she said. "There's one on your back."

Their find triggered a massive intergovernmental and agricultural 
industry effort to save the state's ash trees for as long as possible.

But there isn't much hope.

The emerald ash borer, whose larvae feed inside the bark of ash 
trees, has no natural enemies and experts have no idea how to kill 
it. Sprays and traps have proved ineffective.

Fortunately, its diet is limited to ash trees and it poses no health 
threat to humans or animals.

U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts accurately predicted that 
the beetle, a native of Asia that was first found in Michigan in July 
2002, would reach Pennsylvania within five years.

Those same projections indicate that the state's 3 million ash trees, 
valued at $760 million, will be destroyed within 12 years.

"I'm afraid this beetle is here to stay. It's just a matter of time," 
Sven-Erik Spichiger, an entomologist with the state Department of 
Agriculture, said at a news conference yesterday in Cranberry.

As soon as the pest was discovered near the Interstate 79/turnpike 
connector, state officials -- acting on a game plan they'd already 
mapped out -- ordered a quarantine of Allegheny, Butler, Beaver and 
Lawrence counties, restricting the transportation of ash tree 
material and firewood. More than 20 inspectors, armed with nets, have 
spent the past two days combing grids within five miles of the first 
infestation in Cranberry.

They've found thousands of the beetles.

"We know the whole area is pretty bad right now," Mr. Spichiger said. 
"Our best hope here is to strictly enforce the quarantine and slow 
down the spread in order to give those ahead of the infested area 
time to make intelligent alterations to their landscape."

Those alterations, he said, would involve the removal of ash trees.

"If you have 3-foot ash trees now, it might be a good idea to get 
them down now while you can still handle it," he said, "before you 
have to pay hundreds to have a 60-foot ash tree removed later."

Residents and business owners attending yesterday's news conference 
brought more than just questions and concerns to the session. Some 
came clutching twigs pulled from the trees on their property, hoping 
the experts could allay their fears.

"I've got trees with branches dying at the top," said Sam Manuel, who 
lives on La Grande Drive in Cranberry, less than a mile from the 
first beetle find. "The bark has marks, and I've got a thousand holes 
in there. I thought it was woodpeckers."

Jay Jay Manuel, his wife, asked state officials who would pay for the 
cutting and removal of damaged trees.

Generally, she was told, the cost falls on the property owners.

"It's their expense," said Walt Blosser of the state Department of 
Agriculture. "And trees that are attacked will eventually die and 
will present themselves as hazard trees to property owners. They will 
have to come down."

Representatives of state and federal elected officials said that 
millions of dollars in emergency funds have been requested, but much 
of that money will have to be used to battle the pest.

Mr. Blosser said that the strategy for fighting the beetle in the 
other states -- Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Maryland -- has 
been to clear-cut ash trees within a half-mile of wherever it is 
found. It's a costly effort, he said, and it hasn't stopped the spread.

State Agricultural Secretary Dennis Wolff said Maryland has spent 
almost $5 million trying to kill the beetle, to no avail.

Coanne O'Hearn of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said experts in 
Pennsylvania are looking at the experiences of the other states in an 
effort to figure out what to do. First, however, the survey of the 
trees in the four quarantined counties must be completed.

"Until we have all the data in and can map out where it is and the 
extent of the infestation, we will not be taking down ash trees," she 
said. "Right now, we're trying to find out where [the beetle] is, 
limit the population as best we can with the people that we have, the 
money that we have. Then we will make a decision."

One of the priorities, she said, will be removing ash trees from 
along roadsides, where the trees have been planted because of their 
natural resistance to road salt. The state cannot afford to have dead 
trees where they might fall into traffic or across wires.

In an attempt to slow the beetle's spread, campers are being told not 
to transport firewood.

"Our main concern is in the state parks and forest systems," said 
James Grace, deputy secretary for state parks and forestry with the 
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. "We're asking 
people not to move firewood. It's unbelievable how many people who go 
camping take their firewood with them, and it's been the main cause 
of the spread of this insect pest and a number of others."

The quarantine is especially bad news for businessmen like Fred 
Kison, owner of Four Seasons Firewood Service in Cranberry. While he 
would not be fined for selling firewood to someone who takes it out 
of the quarantine area -- campers would be held responsible -- the 
restrictions are complicated and costly.

"I'm sure that there are lots of folks that would just as soon get 
out of the firewood business rather than comply with a lot of 
regulations, but I would rather comply," he said. "For right now, 
it's survivable. Right now, I have to tell people I'm running an 
ash-free facility."

Mr. Spichiger said the death of Pennsylvania's ash trees, like the 
American chestnut trees that were wiped out by an Asian fungus 
decades ago, is almost inevitable. But there still might be hope.

"Perhaps if we can slow [the beetle], the research that is already in 
the chute may catch up with it," he said.