U.S. Department of Agriculture quarantined ash wood and ash products as well as hardwood firewood in Wayne County

Jefferson City, MO - infoZine - The Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) has announced an Emerald Ash Borer intrastate quarantine currently designated for all of Wayne County. This announcement follows the recent discovery of the plant pest in the state in late July. On Aug. 8, the U.S. Department of Agriculture quarantined ash wood and ash products as well as hardwood firewood in Wayne County. The latest quarantine comes from the state department to keep USDA from applying a quarantine for the entire state, which could negatively impact many industries and businesses.

"We will continue to do everything we can to protect Missouri's forest land and related industries," said Don Steen, director of MDA. "This recent quarantine prevents the spread of a serious insect plant pest to other uninfested areas of our state and other states."

Discovered in July for the first time in Missouri near Greenville, MDA has continued surveillance and implementing the emerald ash borer action plan with the Missouri departments of Conservation, Natural Resources, the University of Missouri and USDA. The Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive wood boring pest that is responsible for the death and decline of more than 50 million trees across the U.S. Since its discovery in Michigan in 2002, it has since been found in nine other states and Ontario, Canada.

"Protecting Missouri's forest and nursery industries from the Emerald Ash Borer as well as prevent unnecessary statewide quarantines in the light of the latest discovery of this plant pest is very important to us," said Collin Wamsley, state entomologist with MDA. "The quarantine on Wayne County is a necessary step in doing everything we can to prevent movement and a further infestation of the Emerald Ash Borer."

The following is a list of articles, the movement of which is regulated and listed in the quarantine:

• The Emerald Ash Borer, Agrilus planippenis Fairmaire, in any living stage of development.
  
  
• Firewood of any non-coniferous (hardwood) species with bark including the ingrown bark around the knots and bark pockets between ring of annual growth and an addition ½ inch of wood, including vascular cambium.
  
  
• Nursery stock, green lumber and other material living, dead, cut or fallen, including logs, stumps, roots, branches and composted and uncomposted chips of the genus Fraxinus (ash).
  
  
• Any item made from or containing ash wood that is capable of spreading the Emerald Ash Borer.
  
  
• Any article, product or means of conveyance when it is determined by the director of agriculture to present the risk of spread of the Emerald Ash Borer.

Businesses and Missourians will be offered compliance agreements from MDA and USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service where regulated articles (with the exception of ash nursery stock) may be moved from a quarantined area to a destination outside of Wayne County.

Related articles in infoZine
Quarantine of Emerald Ash Borer Regulated Articles Announced for Wayne County
The Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) has quarantined ash wood and ash products and hardwood firewood in Wayne County, effective immediately, as part of an attempt to prevent the further spread of the emerald ash borer.

Survey for Emerald Ash Borer Begins in State Parks
If you are curious on your next visit to a Missouri state park about that strange purple object in the tree, don't worry that someone has lost their kite. The purple object is actually part of an effort to determine if emerald ash borers have infested any ash trees in state parks, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Related Link
For more information about the quarantine or compliance agreements contact Collin Wamsley at the Missouri Department of Agriculture at (573) 751-5505.
mdc.mo.gov/forest/health/ashborer