Printable version
Suzanne Bond (301) 734-5175
Jerry Redding (202) 720-4623
USDA URGES RESIDENTS TO BUY FIREWOOD WHERE THEY WILL BURN IT
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2006--Before stocking up on firewood for use indoors, or for use outdoors during activities like camping, hunting or ice skating, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cautions that transporting firewood out of quarantined areas of New Jersey and New York can have a devastating impact on our nation's trees as it could lead to new infestations by the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB).
"Even though the ALB doesn't fly great distances, it can get around very efficiently by hitching a ride in infested wood," said Christine Markham, national ALB program director with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. “Moving potentially infested wood can lead to new infestations in areas previously free of ALB.”
ALB, native to Asia, is a voracious pest of our nation's deciduous hardwood forests and urban landscape. During the summer, the ALB deposits its eggs into healthy hardwood trees. After hatching, the developing beetles bore into hardwood trees to feed on living tree tissue and grow during their larval stage. The larvae could lie within cut firewood, undetected over the winter and if conditions are optimal, they can emerge as adults from unburned wood in the spring or summer. Throughout the summer, adult beetles briefly feed on the small twigs and leaves of host trees before laying eggs to begin the cycle anew.
ALB attacks many different hardwood trees including: all species of maple, birch, horsechestnut, poplar, willow, elm, ash, mimosa (silk tree), hackberry, London plane, sycamore and mountain ash.
Residents are asked not to move USDA regulated articles out of quarantine areas as movement of these articles can unintentionally spread tree killing invasive diseases and insects like the ALB. Articles include firewood (all hardwood species), green lumber and other wood materials living, dead, cut or fallen, including nursery stock, logs, stumps, roots, branches and debris of half an inch or more in diameter of many common urban and forest trees. Transporting wood from established quarantine areas can be both a federal and state offense. Violations can be punished with federal fines of up to $250,000.
ALB was first discovered in the United States in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1996. Currently, quarantines exist in Manhattan (all of Manhattan south of 125th Street); and in Queens and Brooklyn (an area bounded by Prospect Expressway, Linden Boulevard, Liberty Avenue and Grand Central Parkway, and the Nassau County Line to the east). The central Long Island quarantine is bounded roughly by Broadway to the west, the Southern State Parkway to the north and Wellwood Avenue to the east. The Islip infestation boundary is Brentwood Road to the east, Riddle Street to the north, the Southern State Parkway
Spur to the east and Route 27A to the south. In New Jersey, regulated areas include all or parts of the Middlesex and Union County towns of Linden, Rahway, the borough of Carteret, the Avenel section of Woodbridge township, the borough of Roselle, Clark township and the city of Elizabeth.
Residents of New York can find out if they live in an area regulated for ALB before moving firewood by calling the ALB cooperative eradication program at 1–866–265–0301. Residents of New Jersey can call the program at 1–732–815–4700.
The ALB cooperative eradication program is comprised of USDA’s APHIS and Forest Service, joined in New York by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. USDA agencies are joined in New Jersey by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the City of Linden.
The goal of the ALB program is to prevent this highly destructive insect from spreading, and ultimately to eradicate it from New York and New Jersey.
For more information, visit the APHIS Web site at www.aphis.usda.gov, click on Asian longhorned beetle under "Hot Issues." ALB quarantine boundaries can be found at www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/ep/alb/regs.html.
#
Note to Reporters: USDA news releases, program announcements and media advisories are available on the Internet. Go to the APHIS news release page at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/newsroom. Also, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up to receive APHIS press releases automatically. Send an e-mail message to lyris@mdrdlyriss10.aphis.usda.gov and leave the subject blank. In the message, type subscribe press_releases.