USDA-APHIS Makes Changes to the Federal EAB Quarantine; Michigan's Quarantine Remains Intact

Contact: Jennifer Holton 517-241-2485

LANSING - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently issued a Federal Order updating its Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) quarantine policy.  The Federal Order allows unrestricted interstate movement of articles regulated by the EAB quarantine within contiguous federal quarantine boundaries, with the exception of movements to protected areas within the existing quarantine area.  The protected areas include any area identified by a state as pest free for which the state has regulations to protect against the human assisted intrastate spread of EAB.  The change will become effective on July 1, 2012.

To see a map of the federal quarantine boundaries, including the protected areas, click here.

"Michigan supports this update in the federal EAB quarantine, but wants to clarify that the state's EAB quarantine remains in effect.  EAB quarantine requirements for regulated articles moved entirely within Michigan are unchanged," said Gina Alessandri, MDARD's Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division Director.  "By not having to regulate articles going from one infested state to another, staff can focus on activities that are most effective in stopping and slowing the spread of EAB to new areas, including the un-quarantined counties of the Upper Peninsula."

For those who move regulated articles interstate, the impacts of the change to the federal EAB quarantine include:

- A federal certificate or limited permit is no longer needed to ship articles regulated by the EAB quarantine out of Michigan's Lower Peninsula into or through Ohio or Indiana; however, if the final destination of the articles is outside of the contiguous federal quarantine boundaries or into the protected area of Illinois or Indiana, a federal certificate or limited permit is still required.
- A federal certificate or limited permit is no longer needed to move articles regulated by the EAB quarantine into Michigan's Lower Peninsula from areas inside of the contiguous federal quarantine boundaries.

Regulated articles, including all hardwood firewood, originating from the Lower Peninsula cannot be moved into the Upper Peninsula except with a state compliance agreement.

"We continue to ask that people not transport firewood because it can cause the accidental introduction or spread of potentially devastating forest pests such as Asian longhorned beetle, oak wilt, and more," said Alessandri.  "People should purchase firewood as close to where they will use it as possible and should not take any unused firewood home with them or to their next camp site; remember to ‘burn it where you buy it.'"

Michigan residents and visitors are urged to learn about EAB and adhere to the state's quarantine.  Quarantine violators face fines/penalties ranging from $1,000 up to $250,000 and face up to five years in jail if found guilty of transporting hardwood firewood out of the quarantine zones in the Upper Peninsula or from the Lower Peninsula into the Upper Peninsula.

EAB is an exotic insect native to Asia that attacks ash trees in its larval stage; it feeds undetected under the bark of ash trees, disrupting water and nutrient flow, and ultimately killing the trees in just a few years.  The borer was first discovered in 2002, and is responsible for the death or damage of approximately 30 million ash trees in Michigan.

For more information on EAB, please visit www.emeraldashborer.info.  To learn about other invasive pests, visit www.hungrypests.com.

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