Maine Firewood Ban [Archive]

Flat47

11-04-2010, 07:00 AM

By emergency legislative order, the State of Maine has banned imported firewood. This is in hopes of preventing the spread of the Asian Longhorn Beetle. Forest Rangers have staffed a check point on I-95 for a while now.

Check it out:
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=Fire+News&id=146106

red maples

11-04-2010, 07:58 AM

I think that is great!!! It would be nice to have that in every state. not only does it help with keeping down the bugs but it also helps keeps the local small wood producers in business

The other problem is maine has (as well as other ports around the us) the biggest port in the U.S. Hopefully the patrol on shipments from other contries is patrolled like the firewood import is!!! or even better!!!

maplecrest

11-04-2010, 08:52 AM

little late dont ya think. how many camps you think people from the infected areas own in maine???

vtmaplemaker

11-04-2010, 09:08 AM

not to mention they chipped all the infected trees in Mass., and shipped the chips to a Bio Mass plant in Maine... hmmm no way a egg can survive a chipper, and we all know they never loose chips off the truck...

Flat47

11-04-2010, 10:13 AM

True.

I'd heard the initial chipping in Mass was resulting in chips too big. That was about 1.5 or 2 yeras ago. I'm not sure that chip program is still going on.
There is talk of a certification program for firewood that would involve kiln drying to assure pests, eggs, etc are killed prior to shipment.

So far it's just a ban on out of state firewood. Maine does have an entomology group that handles insect and disease control. Forest Rangers handle the law enforcement side of things relating to forestry.

This ban is a big step for Maine in trying to tackle a huge problem. The education aspect of it is just as valuable (maybe more) as the actual collection of banned firewood.

maple flats

11-04-2010, 05:45 PM

NY also has a ban. We can not move wood anymore than 50 miles from where it grew. Each load must have an origin address.
As far as chips, it is my understanding that the larve can not survive in smaller chips. If the heat doesn't get them, they feed out of the cambium layer they are in and starve. To survive they need a live layer big enough to make their gallery.