Just saw on the news that the infestation has now spread to the boothills of Mo. This is the first documented case in Missouri. They also have spread as far south in Illinois as Bloomington.
No firewood bans yet, but I'll bet by next summer, the conservation dept will have firewood bans in place.
I guess I won't miss hauling our firewood with us, it will save on gas.
2006 Chevy 1500 Z71 crewcab
2004 Jayco Jay Feather 23D
I really hate this but the firewood bans don't seem to help. We are going to go look at one of our rental properties that has an ash tree. This property was my wifes orginal home and the tree was planted on her daughters birthday. Ps the house is in Pontiac Ill.
Good luck keeping the ash borer out of your states. Here in eastern PA, the borer has destroyed most of the ash trees, starting about 10 years ago. The woods behind my house no longer have any live ash trees.
P.S. I have NOT taken any ash firewood far from home, so don't blame me.
I've seen Dept. of Agriculture personnel in Ohio campgrounds during check-ins asking if you're transporting wood and generally educating you on the spread of the bug with brochures. You are allowed to transport pine, fir, spruce or other softwoods but no hardwoods at all.
Has anyones RV or car ever been searched without consent or can the DOA even do that without a search warrant? I know police don't generally have that power but other agencies do. Border patrol/Coast Guard can open trunks and tear your car apart searching without consent. Game wardens, etc. can search boats for illegal amounts of fish.
I buy my wood locally where I camp but how does the DOA know where you got it from? You're not required to get a receipt from the wood man.
2004 Damon Daybreak 2960F
05 Honda Element LX
In a democracy two wolves and a sheep can vote on what to have for dinner.
We had a weeks worth of firewood 2 summers ago, and when we saw the banned firewood drop-off/checkpoint in MI, we pulled in. Didn't want to be hauled off Day One of vacation! We got brochures, read the info, tried to find where to dump our "illegal" firewood, no luck! Went to the next rest area and spoke to an employee, they said as long as we burned it all and didn't haul it back out, we would be fine. Huh?
I gotta tell you that being from an uninfested state, and trying to educate ourselves as we entered an infested state, was VERY confusing. When we got to the campground, everyone had brought their own wood from many different states.
I realize the devastation that comes from these guys, and don't want to see the St. Louis Arch grounds treeless(80-90% Ash trees), but seems like an unlikely battle to win.
I've been told that it is OK to transport firewood if it has been kiln dried. A great source of this is construction scraps. It saves the landfills and it's free. I just loaded my truck today at a local construction site. Most of what I get is already cut to size to make it even easier.
Offline
We got brochures, read the info, tried to find where to dump our "illegal" firewood, no luck! Went to the next rest area and spoke to an employee, they said as long as we burned it all and didn't haul it back out, we would be fine. Huh?
