Yesterday's article in the journal Land Letter was a well written piece on invasives and the devastation they have caused.
In November 13th Land Letter, a natural resources weekly online report, the focus was on forest pests. The Asian longhorned beetles of Worcester got top billing, with a good mention of firewood. Here's a quote:
Firewood is a commodity- it is affected by supply and demand, as well as the prices of related commodities (fuel oil and natural gas). There are a lot of factors that are going into the current shortage of firewood that are unrelated to forest pests.
In The Buffalo News (NY) a recent article described with a pretty balanced hand the different aspects of the firewood regulations in NY.
One of the big issues with firewood is that it is a largely unregulated product. Without a centralized authority, the ability to control its movement is pretty low. The new regulations put in place by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation are fairly strict, but in light of severity of the threat, I think they are fair.