With the upcoming holiday weekend likely to send thousands into Minnesota's woods, state officials are enlisting campers in the fight against the emerald ash borer, a bug that has killed 20 million ash trees in the Midwest.
Campers won't be allowed to bring firewood into state parks and other state lands, and the state Department of Agriculture will put up billboards along highways to warn motorists against transporting firewood.
"Pack marshmallows, not firewood," the billboards will say. The Ag Department has also established an informational website, www.saveourash.net.
The aim is to forestall the westward advance of the ash borer, an invasive pest without serious natural predators that has killed 20 million ash trees in the lower Midwest and southern Ontario since it was discovered near Detroit five years ago.
Regarded as potentially more destructive than the elm bark beetle, the emerald ash borer destroys every type of ash in its way.
Ash makes up 7 percent of all trees in Minnesota and 10 percent of all hardwoods.
"The simple message is: 'Don't bring firewood from home,' " said Chuck Kartak, deputy director of the Department of Natural Resources division of parks and recreation.
Campers in state parks and on other state lands who bring wood with them will be asked to exchange it on site. Next year, they'll face a $100 fine.
The state will burn the wood to ensure that it's destroyed.
Though the new restrictions don't affect campers in private campgrounds, people at cabins or even homeowners, officials are hoping that the message spreads. The Agriculture Department is also posting informational signs on ash trees in the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes area, around the State Capitol and in Duluth and Rochester, extending a similar effort underway in eight other states.
The department is also certifying firewood sellers whose wood has been harvested within Minnesota.
No hitchhikers wanted
The bug hasn't been found yet in Wisconsin or Minnesota. Left to travel on its own six legs, it likely wouldn't arrive here for decades, but authorities are concerned that it might hitch a ride on infected firewood traveling from quarantined states -- Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Maryland.
Ash has some commercial uses, but authorities are focusing their attack now on firewood because its distribution is informal and hard to monitor, said Mike Schommer, state Agriculture Department spokesman.
Ag Department researchers have developed about 100 "trap" trees around the state in recent years in an effort to find emerald ash borers, and found none. They plan to expand the effort to about 1,000 trees along major transportation routes this year.
Despite all those preventive and monitoring measures, officials still fear the ash borer's determination.
Val Cervenka, forest entomologist for the DNR, said she regards its arrival in Minnesota as "inevitable."
At a news conference Tuesday, Cervenka and others said they hope the firewood restrictions and other measures buy enough time for scientists and foresters to develop effective weapons against the ash borer.Minneapolis Star Tribune
