A firewood quarantine is in effect for most of Connecticut to prevent the spread of the invasive emerald ash borer and Asian longhorn beetle. Labor Day campers are warned not to transport firewood and instead to buy it close to where they camp.
The state was set to run an enforcement station on Interstate 84 on Friday in Union to crack down on firewood transport.
The emerald ash borer was first discovered in Prospect in July 2012 and is now known to be in six of Connecticut”™s eight counties, including Fairfield.
In response to the 2012 discovery, regulations concerning the transportation of firewood were adopted. They prohibit untreated and unpermitted firewood from being moved out of quarantined areas.
Fairfield, Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties are under the quarantine. The ash borer was recently confirmed in Middlesex and New London counties; there was no word on their quarantine status.
Officers from Connecticut”™s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will be on the lookout for vehicles transporting firewood into and within Connecticut to prevent the spread of the insects. Ash borers destroy ash trees ”“ one of the hardest of hardwoods and a valuable forest product. The longhorn beetle threatens a wide variety of valuable trees, including sugar maple, birch, willows and poplars.
Inspections were scheduled on I-84 westbound in Union from 6 a.m. to noon by DEEP”™s Environmental Conservation Police in cooperation with inspectors from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Firewood transported into the state and across county lines in violation of the quarantines was to be confiscated.
“With much of Connecticut under an emerald ash borer quarantine and Asian longhorn beetle just to our north in Worcester, Mass., it is important to remind motorists of the unintentional threat of spreading these tree-killing beetles by transporting firewood from place to place,” said DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee. “Trees provide a defining element of Connecticut”™s economy and beauty, so we all have a vested interest in preventing the introduction and spread of destructive beetles.”
