Month: January 2022

Firewood regulation, certification, and recommendation report

Posted on by Leigh Greenwood

Many firewood-relevant regulatory changes have happened between 2021 and today across the United States, due in large part to two separate pest related events; the federal domestic deregulation of emerald ash borer, and a long term regional shift in the Eastern states’ approach to thousand cankers of walnut. With these changes and more at hand, the team at Don’t Move Firewood wrote a comprehensive research and synthesis report of firewood regulations, certification, and outreach statuses in 2021, with the goal to provide simple and accurate professional comparative summaries for each major topic area. Since that initial report, we have updated the information periodically to reflect addition shifts in both regulation and outreach.

The latest version of the full report, with state and territory appendices, is now available to download here: FirewoodComparisonReport_April2023_re-issue_v2

Multiple webinars have covered the report and its findings.

  • February 23rd 2022: Hawaii Invasive Species Awareness Month, Hawaii focus. Recording not available.
  • March 1st, 2022: Emerald Ash Borer University, National focus. Recording available here: Find on EABU page | Watch on YouTube
  • March 4th, 2022 at noon Eastern: National Invasive Species Awareness Week, National focus. Watch on YouTube
  • March 16th, 2022 at 11am Mountain time: Western EAB Cooperator Pre-Meeting Session. Specific focus on western states and emerald ash borer. Watch on YouTube
  • April 2022: Western Plant Board. Recording not available.
  • April 2022: Western Forest Insect Work Conference. Recording not available.

 

Build on the power of birdwatching!

Posted on by Leigh Greenwood

Did you know that 20% of US residents identify themselves as a birdwatcher, bird lover, or birder? That’s a LOT of binocular wielding citizen scientists! Does that include… YOU?

Here at Don’t Move Firewood, we’d like to invite all the birdwatchers that participate in the Christmas Bird Count, Great Backyard Bird Count, or just everyday birding adventures, to take a few moments to inspect the trees that their birds depend on for signs of forest pests. The easiest thing to do is to look around for holes in trees- and we’ve made a special handout called the Birdwatcher’s Guide to Holes in Trees for just that purpose. Download the handout, read through it, and familiarize yourself with the three basic types of holes in trees- holes made by typical bird foraging, holes made by birds foraging on invasive insects, and holes made by the invasive insects themselves.

BUT WAIT! Are you a forest health professional?  Multiply your impact by reaching out to your local Audubon Society (or other birdwatching group) representative to get Holes in Trees handouts to each birder that they know! You can either choose to print out physical copies and provide them, or just email the PDF to various birding listservers. You are responsible for contacting and educating your local bird groups- and remember, they are usually volunteers, so please be respectful of their time and desire to help (or a lack thereof!).

Good luck, and keep an eye out for Holes In Trees!

 

Photo of emerald ash borer exit hole and woodpecker foraging hole, credit D. Cappaert

This page was initially published in 2014 as Harness the power of Birdwatchers