The Emerald Ash Borer has been found in northern Aroostook and York counties and upcoming public hearings will discuss an expansion of state quarantine areas to prevent damage to Maine’s timber industry. COURTESY PHOTO/USDA
SPRINGVALE — Maine’s forests are quiet right now, but as the weather warms, a quarantine to stop the movement of an invasive forest pest that may threaten the local timber industry could be expanded across the state.
In 2018, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry used a quarantine to contain the emerald ash borer and prevent the pest’s movement in firewood, ash logs, ash wood products and other products from northern Aroostook and York counties.
At a public hearing set for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Office in Springvale, representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry will explain why the quarantine is necessary to protect forests in the state and other landscape tree resources. Another public hearing will be conducted Feb. 11 at the Maine Forest Service Office in Ashland.
The state says the quarantine is needed to protect forests in the state, as well as landscape tree resources.
In imposing the quarantine for northern Aroostook and York counties, officials said that although the beetles were found on traps and infested trees near the western border of York County and an order restricting the movement of some ash products and firewood issued Sept. 12 only affected four towns, Acton, Berwick, Lebanon and Shapleigh, because of the size of York County, it is probable that eventually all of York County will be included in future state and federal quarantines.
The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s Bureau of Forestry director originally expanded the Order Area in the Emergency Order to Stop Movement of Ash products in August to include Frenchville, Grand Isle and Madawaska in Aroostook County, and issued an emergency order last fall to restrict the movement of certain ash products and any untreated firewood from ash borer-infested towns in Maine.
The order was issued to help protect the ash resources of Maine from the unrestricted spreading of the invasive emerald ash borer throughout the state.
Ash trees currently make up about 4 four percent of Maine’s hardwood forest and are a valuable timber species.
The ash borer is a destructive and invasive pest that was first detected in Michigan in 2002 prompting a federal quarantine in 2003 to restrict movement of potentially infested material. Native to Asia, it’s thought to have arrived in the United States in solid-wood packing material.
It has now been found in 35 states, and four Canadian provinces and has cost municipalities, property owners, nursery operators and forest products industries hundreds of millions of dollars as ash trees infested with ash borers typically die within two to three years.
State officials at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry say that the detection of emerald ash borer in York County will impact individual landowners, communities, and the wood industry in numerous ways including moving firewood from the order area is prohibited; woodlot owners, foresters, and loggers involved in ash harvests will see a change in markets and the loss of a valuable timber species; and a rapid decline in ash trees may threaten infrastructure and public safety.
More information on this pest in Maine can be found at www.maine.gov
The University of Maine Cooperative Extension Office in York County is located at 15 Oak St. in Springvale.
— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com
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