When pest control is mentioned, one most often thinks of ants, spiders, mice, or other common pests in the home, bedbugs in hotels, or cockroaches in restaurants. But controlling pests, and the role that we all must play, can also mean helping to keep local pests from spreading to new areas – and keeping non-local pest from being brought into our neighborhoods.

One of the most important ways that homeowners, backyard enthusiasts, campers, and anyone who uses firewood can help control pests is by keeping firewood in the region in which it cut.


To reinforce this, the government came up with the slogan: “Burn it where you buy it” or “Buy it where you burn it.” For those who chop their own wood, the slogan should also include the phrase “Burn it where you cut it.”

 

What does all this mean?

As explained by USDA Forest Service, “The movement of firewood can be a source of introduction and dissemination of invasive forest insects and diseases into and around the United States.” For example, “pests such as the Asian longhorned beetle and emerald ash borer are established in other states and would cause great harm if they became established in California. The gold spotted oak borer, sudden oak death, and pitch canker are invasive pests that are established in parts of California and would cause additional harm if they became established in other parts of the state.”

The same is true when numerous other pests are transported to areas where they are not native or previously established.

 

What does this have to do with firewood?

Firewood can carry invasive insects and diseases that can kill trees.

In fact, the Forest Service said, the transport of firewood is one of the main way that many invasive pests are spread from one area to another.

Although native trees evolve to survive with local insects and diseases, but they are much more susceptible to non-native insect infestation because they would not have developed natural defenses against these. Additionally, the non-native insects and diseases have few (if any) predators, leaving them to survive, reproduce quickly and outcompete native species. Because of this, if non-native insects are carried into new areas in firewood, the Forest Service explained, they can quickly build up their population to destroy our forests, lessen property values, and cost a great deal to monitor, manage, and control.

 

In some states it is illegal to transport firewood

Some states have quarantines that prevent people from moving firewood more than 50 miles. Some have restrictions against moving wood across county lines; and some states don’t allow firewood to be brought in from other states.

Additionally, there are firewood transportation policies in U.S. Forest Service facilities, with signs posted in developed campgrounds and day-use facilities where fires are permitted that show and explain the potential danger of moving insects and disease in firewood.

Even if you inspect the wood, shake it, and knock the logs together, never assume that it is safe to move just because it “looks safe.” There could still be wood-boring insects, tiny insect eggs, or microscopic fungus spores in or on the wood that you just don’t see. These tiny threats are enough to destroy an entire ecosystem.

 

Camping Tips

The Nature Conservancy provides the following tips on finding safe firewood when camping more than 50 miles from where you live:

1. Know the state and county firewood regulations of the area to which you are headed – before you go.
2. Call the state state or federal park or forest authority nearest the site and ask for references to local distributors.
3. Conduct an online search for a firewood seller near the campsite.
4. If you have unused firewood at the end of your stay – leave it for the next camper instead of taking it home.