Cook County joined Lake County in asking the state of Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to lift the gypsy moth quarantine on wood products coming from each county at its December 22 meeting. Lake County called on the state to end the quarantine at the end of November.
History of the pest
With few natural predators in the U.S., this invasive species, which was brought from Europe to the Boston area in 1869, has slowly eaten its way through most of the northeastern and Midwestern United States and parts of Canada.
First discovered in Minnesota in 1969 in Duluth, the moths became a problem soon after and in 1973 the MDA, in conjunction with federal, state, tribal, and local officials, worked to slow their growth.
Cook County has been monitored since 2004 and treated since 2006. Treatment was designed to slow—not stop—the spread of the moths.
On the heels of a record number of gypsy moths caught in Minnesota in 2013, with over 90 percent of those caught in Cook and Lake counties, the state of Minnesota placed a quarantine on both counties restricting the movement of pulp wood, firewood, Christmas trees, trailers, and other items that might contain gypsy moths or their larvae.
Because of the new rules any wood products sold and transported outside of the quarantine area must be inspected and loggers and lumber mill owners have to sign compliance agreements and receive special training. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to $7,500 per day, but to date no mill or logger has been fined by the state.
Loggers and mill owners argued that the compliance agreements were an unnecessary burden, costing them both time and money. The state argued the only way to slow the moths from spreading was by taking away some of their mobility. The moths and larvae are notorious for hitchhiking on wood products.
Moth numbers climb, then fall
In order to keep track of how many moths live in a given area the state hires 30-35 trappers every summer.
In 2009 trappers caught 27,000 moths. That number rose significantly in 2013 when 71,262 moths were caught statewide. Of those, 62,243 were trapped in Cook and Lake counties. The next year 105 moths were caught in Cook and Lake counties.
Part of the reason fewer moths were caught was because fewer traps were set.
“In 2014, we placed a total of 552 traps in Cook and Lake counties, a decrease of approximately 48 percent from the total traps placed during the 2013 survey season,” said Thielen Cremers, director of the MDA Gypsy Moth Program. “It is common that we place less detection traps within areas that become quarantined since the goal of our survey program is to detect newly established populations out in front of the generally infested area,” Cremers said.
“Cook and Lake counties would be considered generally infested. In addition, it would not be uncommon for us to pick up less moths due to the significant decrease in survey traps placed within Lake and Cook counties. However, I’m sure that’s not the whole story. …
“I don’t think I need to remind anyone, but the 2013-14 winter broke a lot of records and was one of the coldest winters on record.
“Yes, we do believe the record cold temperatures coupled with the cold wet spring did have a negative impact [from a management standpoint— positive impact] on the gypsy moth population in Minnesota. In fact, this was seen nationwide,” said Cremers.
If the state does agree to end the quarantine, it will be the first time any state has agreed to end a quarantine on gypsy moths since the practice began out east more than 100 years ago.
Resolution to remove restrictions passes
Commissioner Garry Gamble introduced the resolution to the board. In his motion Gamble stated, “The government instituted quarantine has unnecessarily imposed disruptive regulations on Cook and Lake County’s 20 to 50-million dollar forest industry by limiting markets and adding paper work; and whereas gypsy moth outbreaks on both the European and North American continents are associated with the presence, abundance and characteristics of oak forests of which Cook and Lake counties, according to the vegetative composition figures from the Superior National Forest’s (3.9 million acres) Forest Plan, constituted of 0 percent oak in 2003 and is projected to remain the same for the next hundred years.”
Gamble went on to say the number of gypsy moths in both counties have dropped significantly in the past couple of years and according to the Department of Agriculture’s own findings “gypsy moth populations eventually collapse due to increasing disease, competition for food, and natural enemies, citing that after the first outbreak, gypsy moth populations behave more like those of native insects, with cyclic outbreaks every eight to 12 years.”
Also, noted Gamble citing research on the temperature at which gypsy moth larvae can survive, the winter temperatures in Cook and Lake counties are too cold for the moth to establish itself in significant numbers.
A recent study, said Gamble, suggested there is little evidence for strong regulation of low-density populations when forest composition is at or near optimal diversity, a definition that fits northern Minnesota’s boreal forest, and, he noted, the state was no longer treating the moths in Cook or Lake Counties.
His motion called for the MDA to “lift the quarantines on Cook and Lake counties” and to once again resume efforts to eradicate the moths remaining in Cook and Lake counties.
The motion passed unanimously.
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