Lakefront Property Owners Should Keep Maine Beautiful – Leave Your Firewood at Home

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Out and About for the Bangor Lakes Region of Maine July 10-16
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Lakefront Property Owners Should Keep Maine Beautiful – Leave Your Firewood at Home

Lakefront Property Owners Should Keep Maine Beautiful – Leave Your Firewood at Home

Summer at the Lake in Maine–Campfires and S’Mores

by Leigh Macmillen Hayes

Mention the word summer to Maine lakefront property owners and we immediately envision hanging out in or on the lake and sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows.

 

 

 

 

 


Karen Coluzzi, State Pest Survey Coordinator for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry has asked us to remind you to leave your firewood at home if you are coming to Maine from another state.
Coluzzi says that “one aspect of Maine’s beauty that makes it unique and inviting is the vast number of trees and large stretches of forested land. Maine has the largest continuous temperate broadleaf and mixed forest of any state in the nation. These forests provide valuable habitat for many animals known to Maine, like moose, deer, black bears and the endangered Canada lynx. These forests also protect the waters of lakes, ponds, rivers and brooks, limit soil erosion, clean the air and absorb carbon dioxide. In fact, it just wouldn’t be Maine without the trees.
That’s why we need everyone who lives in Maine, visits Maine, and loves Maine to consider the trees and help protect them from invasive forest pests, like the emerald ash borer, which has been found in 23 states and has killed over fifty million ash trees in the U.S., and the Asian longhorned beetle, which has spread into some natural areas of Massachusetts. These insects move to new areas when people unwittingly move firewood that is infested. Over 75% of new infestations of emerald ash borer have been caused by infested firewood. It is difficult to tell whether a piece of firewood is infested, which is why Maine, and many other states in the country, have implemented out-of-state firewood bans.
Unfortunately, these bans will only work if people adhere to them. Should you bring firewood to Maine, you can do the right thing. There are firewood disposal sites in Augusta, Gray and West Paris.
Historically, moving firewood from one destination to another was always an acceptable practice. In fact, it was encouraged so that campers, hunters and other recreationists wouldn’t cut nearby trees. Circumstances have changed though. Once invasive wood-boring pests made it to our shores, likely in solid wood packaging materials that were infested, the ability for these insects to colonize our native trees was unimaginable.
Maine is currently suffering from new invasive forest pests that have recently spread into the state. Lack of quarantines, or failure to adhere to quarantines, aided the expansion of hemlock woolly adelgid and the winter moth. Both insects can kill trees; hemlock mortality has already been observed in parts of Maine. Winter moth has been causing severe defoliation, primarily on oak, apple and maple, in some coastal areas, like Vinalhaven and Harpswell. Although these insects can spread through natural means, for example, birds can carry hemlock woolly adelgid to uninfested hemlock, and winter moth larvae can “balloon” to nearby areas, long-range dispersal is often always human-mediated. Winter moth’s arrival in Maine from Massachusetts has been linked to the movement of landscape plants to second homes on the coast.
The newest threats to our forests and trees will most likely get here on infested firewood. Both the emerald ash borer and the Asian longhorned beetle, neither of which has been found in Maine yet, have larval stages that live and feed inside their host trees. It is difficult to tell whether a tree is infested. If an infested tree is cut down and chopped into firewood, the larvae or pupae inside can still complete development and emerge from the piece of wood as adult beetles. Yes, quarantines are in place to suppress the movement of infested material, but oftentimes an infestation is not discovered for many years. The best defense against establishment of these invasive tree-killing pests is to not move firewood. Not because it’s against the law; it’s because we want to protect our trees. And our lakes.
For more information:
Maine’s firewood ban: www.maine.gov/firewood
Asian longhorned beetle: www.maine.gov/alb
Emerald ash borer:  www.maine.gov/eab
Hemlock woolly adelgid:  www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/insects/hemlock_woolly_adelgid.htm
Winter moth:  www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/invasive_threats/index.htm#wm
To learn more about lakefront property for sale in the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine, click on the green box above.
To learn more about the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine, check out the blog links below.
The Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine
Salmon Lake, Belgrade & Oakland, Maine: Experience Rose-colored Sunsets

 

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