Last week, I spent a few days hiking and sightseeing in Shenandoah National Park. I photographed this sign near the northern entrance to the park. Since March, the National Park Service has implemented a firewood ban in Shenandoah to help combat the spread of emerald ash borer, an invasive insect pest.
Emerald ash borer (EAB) was first identified in Virginia in 2003, but it was effectively controlled at that time. Unfortunately, another infestation of EAB was discovered in Fairfax County in 2008. EAB spreads quickly, and has already killed tens of millions of ash trees in 14 U.S. states since it was first found in Michigan in 2002. This insect from Asia is a serious threat to our forests and parks. It bores in all species of ash trees, and kills them quickly. EAB impacts not only dying or diseased trees, but also young, healthy ash trees. Every ash tree is at risk.
Unfortunately, I don't think the firewood ban in Shenandoah goes far enough to protect its cherished forests. Visitors who bring firewood with them to the park are only encouraged to burn it quickly, or to wrap it and leave it in the car. Park rangers do not inspect or confiscate firewood, nor do they ask if you are carrying wood from an outside source when you enter the park. The firewood ban amounts to a few signs educating the public about EAB. Compliance with the ban is entirely voluntary.
I'm glad I visited Shenandoah National Park now. In addition to the threat of emerald ash borer, our eastern forests are under seige from other exotic pests like Asian longhorned beetle and hemlock woolly adelgid. Within a generation, our parks may look strikingly different as we lose our hemlocks, maples, ashes, and other trees susceptible to such pests.
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Comments
“Within a generation, our parks may look strikingly different as we lose our hemlocks, maples, ashes, and other trees susceptible to such pests.”
Not just our parks, of course, but our back yards, roadsides, and just plain old woods. It is analogous to the loss of the American chestnut and the American elm, although efforts are being made to develop disease resistant strains of those. I suppose one hope for the ashes in North America is that some will just happen to have genes that provide them resistance to the EAB.
They probably don’t confiscate it because they would have to get rid of it themselves. That might take money. What a shame to know how to fix or prevent something from happening and not to do anything about it.
Aside from losing the places that, thank God, are set aside to be protected, it will impact the price of anything made from those species, like furniture.