Don't Move Firewood: Protecting Great Basin's Forests From Pests

First published in The Midden*, Great Basin National Park's newsletter, Vol. 19, No. 1, Summer 2019. By Julie Long, wildlife and plants biological science technician.*

Singleleaf pinyon pine is vulnerable to many diseases and pests. NPS photo by Julie Long.

Why think twice about moving firewood? Because logs and firewood can carry tree-killing insects and diseases. These are small, cannot travel far on their own, and often go unnoticed, living under the bark and inside trunks and branches. Carrying firewood to a new place helps them spread — and non-native ones are especially destructive, because native trees often have no defences against them.

Watching the park's forests

Great Basin National Park monitors forest health with the State of Nevada and the U.S. Forest Service.

• For the past ten years, the Forest Service has flown aerial detection surveys to track insect and disease damage.
• Park and Forest Service staff have treated high-value limber pine (Pinus flexilis) and ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa) with verbenone, a natural anti-aggregation pheromone that makes mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) think a tree is already taken, so they leave it alone.

In 2017, Forest Service specialists found these on Engelmann spruce near Wheeler Peak Campground:

• spruce broom rust (Chrysomyxa arctostaphyli);
• Cooley spruce gall adelgid (Adelges cooleyi);
• spruce engraver beetles (Ips);
• spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis).

Any new pests or diseases brought in could weaken these trees further and kill more of them.

Five ways to help

1. Buy or gather firewood where you will burn it.
2. Leave your firewood at home — fungal spores are microscopic.
3. Spread the word in your community.
4. Check your state's rules on moving firewood.
5. Buy certified, heat-treated firewood.

More information is at dontmovefirewood.org.

Sources

• National Park Service, Great Basin National Park, "Don't Move Firewood," The Midden, Vol. 19, No. 1, Summer 2019. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/don-t-move-firewood.htm
• The original spells the insect "Cooley spruce gall agelgid"; it is an adelgid.
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.