Forest Products Industry: Learn about EAB Quarantines, How to Stay in Business April 23 in Holmes Co.

CHARM, Ohio — Sawmill owners, loggers, mulch manufacturers, pallet makers, foresters, firewood dealers and other representatives of the green and timber industries — mark you calendars for Monday, April 23, for an informational session about emerald ash borer (EAB) quarantines and how they might impact your operation.

Two identical sessions, free of charge, will be held from 2-4 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. at Keim Lumber Co., 4465 St. Rt. 557, Charm, Ohio. Charm is located southeast of Millersburg in Holmes County, between Walnut Creek and New Bedford.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) and the US. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) will be available to discuss new rules regarding federal and state quarantines aimed to slow the spread of the ash tree-killing insect and how compliance agreements can be used to allow you to continue doing business without spreading EAB.

On Dec. 1, 2006, USDA quarantined the entire states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio — more than doubling the previously quarantined area, which included the lower peninsula of Michigan. The federal order prohibits the movement of quarantined materials out of the state of Ohio without federal certification. These materials include all hardwood firewood; pallets; ash nursery stock and green lumber; and any other ash material including logs, stumps, roots, branches, as well as composted and uncomposted wood chips.

The federal quarantine does not change Ohio’s quarantine, which still makes it illegal to move all hardwood firewood, ash trees and parts of an ash tree out of 26 counties: Auglaize, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Defiance, Erie, Franklin, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Huron, Logan, Lorain, Lucas, Marion, Medina, Mercer, Miami, Sandusky, Seneca, Ottawa, Paulding, Warren, Williams, Wood, and Wyandot. Violators face state fines up to $4,000. Federal fines are much steeper.

State and federal quarantines aim to slow the spread of EAB while the science community continues to work to develop solutions to combat this pest, including improved detection and control strategies. USDA estimates that if EAB is not contained or eradicated, it has the potential to cost state and local governments $7 billion over the next 25 years to remove and replace dead and dying ash trees that can pose a safety hazard in urban and suburban areas.

An invasive, exotic insect from Asia first found in Ohio in 2003, EAB threatens Ohio’s 5 billion ash trees and related industries. Ash trees infested with EAB typically die within three to five years. The pest belongs to a group of metallic wood-boring beetles. Adults are dark green, one-half inch in length and one-eighth inch wide. Larvae spend the rest of the year beneath the bark of ash trees, and when they emerge as adults, leave D-shaped exit holes in the bark about one-eighth inch wide.

For more information about the April 23 sessions or for directions to Keim Lumber Co., call Gary Graham, Ohio State University Extension Center at Wooster, at (330) 263-3799, or email him at graham.124@osu.edu.

To learn more about EAB, call 1-888-OHIO-EAB or visit http://www.ashalert.osu.edu or http://www.ohioagriculture.gov/eab.

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