The sleepy, snow-covered wood at Hedstrom’s Lumber mill could fall under quarantine in the spring under a proposal put forth by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Despite attempts that began in 2006 to slow the spread of gypsy moths in Lake and Cook County, the moth population has grown faster each year, causing the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to propose quarantine for Lake and Cook counties to restrict the movement of wood products starting this spring. The MDA is seeking public comment and public meetings will be held in the near future to discuss the implications of quarantine that will affect loggers as well as lumber mills.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is currently seeking comments from the public about its proposal to quarantine Cook and Lake counties “for the restricted movement of certain articles at risk for spreading gypsy moths.”
Those “articles” include wood shipped from lumber mills to areas outside of Cook or Lake County, and any other wood products like a lumberjack’s logs, pulpwood or even Christmas trees that would normally be sold to areas outside of the quarantine zone.
All of these products would have to be inspected and certified before being shipped. During certain times of the year sawmills would also have to cut and process wood bought from quarantine areas within five days.
If the quarantine were enacted, loggers and designated lumber mill workers would be required to attend compliance agreement training and follow those guidelines or potentially face penalties.
“Fines and penalties are determined on a case-by-case basis in accordance with Minnesota Statutes 181J. Penalties range from administrative to civil actions and are based on type and seriousness of violation,” said Lucia Hunt, gypsy moth unit supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Gypsy moths crossing the country
Gypsy moths have no natural predators in the United States and are considered invasive species. In 1869 L. Trouvelot brought gypsy moths to Boston from Europe in the hope that he could breed a hardier silkworm.
Turns out he was wrong. Within 20 years gypsy moths were causing problems throughout Massachusetts. Since then, despite multiple approaches to slow their spread, gypsy moth caterpillars continue to defoliate large areas and continue their slow munch, munch, munch across the country. They harm trees by eating their leaves and repeated attacks by moths can leave trees more vulnerable to drought and other pests.
Quarantine could start next spring
The MDA has indicated that it would like to start the quarantine next spring.
To date, 21 states have enacted similar measures, and once put in place, no gypsy moth quarantine has ever been removed.
“Quarantines can be repealed once the threat is subsided, but in the case of the gypsy moths, the first quarantines established in 1912 are still in effect,” said MDA’s Hunt.
The state of Minnesota has worked for more than four decades to keep the leaf-eating gypsy moth larvae at bay, but with little luck. Each caterpillar can eat about nine square feet of foliage and while the moths can be found in many parts of the state, they have established a stronghold in the Tip of the Arrowhead, despite attempts to slow their spread starting in 2006 with the aerial spraying of a biological insecticide and the use of a sex pheromone—a biological signaling chemical—that disrupts gypsy moths’ breeding by confusing the males.
To try to keep track of just where and just how many moths there are the state hires people to trap them in the summer. Results of the 2013 trapping survey showed that more than 69,000 gypsy moths were found to live in the state, with 90 percent of those found in northeastern Minnesota.
Hunt said those trapping figures were an all-time state record, and compared them to the 2009 tally when trappers caught 27,000 moths.
When the issue of an MDA proposed quarantining came up in the summer of 2013, Hunt explained that quarantines are one component of a multi-agency, multi-state program to slow—but likely not stop—the impacts of the gypsy moth.
Hunt said the Slow the Spread (STS) program’s trapping and treatments eliminate populations well in advance of the population front, and quarantines are established behind the front to contain the pest.
The historic rates of the spread of the gypsy moth have been around 20 kilometers per year using quarantines alone. Those rates have dropped over 60 percent since the implementation of the STS in 2000, delaying the establishment of the insect and the need for quarantine.
Timber industry questions effectiveness of quarantine
Wayne Brandt, executive vice president of Minnesota Forest Industries, questions whether quarantines work. As editor-in-chief of the Timber Bulletin, Brandt wrote in the July/ August issue, “Loggers and industry have the cost of quarantines forced on us and the critters still spread. Why? Because we’re easy to find, easy to inspect and they have the authority to do it.”
Brandt also wrote, “Massive amounts of money have been spent to slow the spread of gypsy moths. And, the gypsy moth is now exactly where the federal government, in their own environmental impact study said it would be if they did nothing.”
Gary Erickson, regional manager of wood fiber and fuel procurement for Sappi Fine Paper in Cloquet, said, “Sappi has had a compliance agreement for over 10 years.”
Sappi receives wood from quarantined areas in Wisconsin and Michigan.
When asked how the process works, Erickson replied, “The shipper of wood products coming out of a quarantine area is responsible for documenting the source of the wood and notifying APHIS of each shipment. To my knowledge we have not received wood products that fail to meet the requirements of our compliance agreement.
“One requirement of the compliance agreement is that we need to clean up the wood residue left on the “landing” where the wood is stored that came out of a quarantine area or spray it with insecticide. In the past, we have hired a pest control operator to spray with insecticide the landing where wood is stored.”
When asked if there was a noticeable difference in wood coming from quarantined areas versus wood coming from non-quarantined areas Erickson said, “We have not observed any difference in wood products coming from within a quarantine area. Based on our knowledge and experience, a negative impact on growth and yield of the forests within the quarantine areas of Wisconsin or Michigan has not been identified.
Most impacts identified by the agencies are related to recreation, nurseries and urban areas— visual impacts typically.
“The program is designed to slow the spread of gypsy moths.
An important question is if it is cost effective to spend money to slow the spread when the primary impacts are to visual resources and not growth and yield?” said Erickson.
Erickson wouldn’t discuss the costs of the compliance agreement to Sappi, but loggers and lumber mills will have costs to bear, and those costs will inevitably be passed on to the consumer.
Two public hearings will be held to learn how the proposed quarantine might affect the public. One will be held in Two Harbors at the Lake County Courthouse and a meeting will be held in Grand Marais at the Cook County Courthouse in the Cook County Board of Commissioners room. Because the meeting times and dates have changed, they can be found in next week’s legal notices.
The MDA is also hoping to receive written input from the public about the proposed quarantine. Written comments will be accepted for 30 days (January 9 to February 7, 2013) after which the MDA will respond. Those letters can be sent to: Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Gypsy Moth Quarantine Comments, 625 Robert St. N., St. Paul, MN 55155 or emailed to: gypsy.moth@state.mn.us.
Minnesota Department of Agriculture Public Meetings on potential gypsy moth quarantine.
The MDA is in the process of scheduling times and dates for the public meetings.
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