State officials are considering proposals to expand several quarantine zones for firewood and other tree parts to slow the spread of three invasive species that kill trees.
York and Cumberland counties as well as parts of Oxford and Aroostook counties have been under quarantine for several years to prevent further spread of emerald ash borers. The small beetles burrow under ash bark and eventually kill the trees, which occupy important ecological, cultural and economic niches in Maine.
But now the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry wants to expand that quarantine to all of Androscoggin, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties as well as parts of Penobscot, Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties. The department will hold public hearings on the proposal on Sept. 6 at 10 a.m. in Augusta and Old Town (which can also be attended virtually) and is accepting written comment on the this and two other proposed quarantine expansions through September 22.
Maine state horticulturalist Gary Fish said the primary culprit for the spread is likely people transporting infested firewood around the state.
"This past year it moved from kind of in the Cumberland County area to the Lewiston-Auburn area, then we found it in the Waterville-Oakland area and then most recently in the Corinna-Newport area,” Fish said on Tuesday. “So that huge expansion in the populations that we have found has triggered this requirement to expand the quarantine area."
In the case of the emerald ash borer, a quarantine means that people cannot move hardwood firewood – regardless of the tree species -- outside of the quarantine zone unless it has been certified as heat treated. There are no restrictions on movement of hardwood firewood within the quarantine zone. The quarantine also prohibits the movement of live ash trees as well as logs, green lumber with bark, lumber that has not been heat-treated, stumps or other parts of ash trees outside of the area.
The department will issue certificates or compliance agreements granting exceptions to the quarantine for movement of some ash, such as certified, heat-treated firewood. The quarantine does not apply to finished ash products without “live” or bark edges. Ash is frequently used in Maine to produce objects such as baseball bats and by tribal artisans to weave baskets and other products.
The department has also proposed expanding the existing quarantine areas for movement of hemlock and larch logs or other tree parts to control the spread of the hemlock woolly adelgid and the European larch canker.
The proposal calls for expanding the hemlock quarantine from the current area in southern and midcoast Maine further inland to capture additional parts of Oxford, Androscoggin, Franklin, Somerset, Penobscot, Kennebec, Waldo and Hancock counties. The proposed expansion of the larch quarantine would encompass additional areas of Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Waldo, Penobscot, Hancock and Washington counties.
Maps and additional information on the proposed quarantine expansions are available here.
"Our economy, our ecology, they're all founded on trees,” Fish said. “We are the most forested state in the nation. So it is very important for us to do everything we can to either slow the spread of these invasive species or prevent them from coming in."
