Agency: Agriculture and Rural Development

County quarantined in February 2016 now confirmed as infested

For immediate release: Nov. 3, 2016 Media contact: Jennifer Holton, 517-284-5724 EAB program contact: John Bedford, 517-284-5650

LANSING –The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services recently confirmed that Baraga County is infested with emerald ash borer.  The information was part of the final results of the 2016 emerald ash borer trapping program.  Of the 122 traps deployed earlier this year, only one was determined to be positive for EAB. Contractors working for USDA-APHIS collected an adult EAB from a panel trap in the northern part of Baraga County.  2016 trapping was conducted in the five Upper Peninsula counties not known to be infested at the time that the traps were deployed; Baraga, Gogebic, Iron, Menominee and Ontonagon.

“Although the confirmation of EAB in Baraga County is disappointing, it was not unexpected,” said Gina Alessandri, Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division Director. “By proactively including Baraga County in the February 2016 quarantine revision the ash resource in Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon counties was further protected.”

A February 2016 revision of the state’s EAB Quarantine added four additional counties in the Upper Peninsula: Baraga, Dickinson, Marquette and Menominee. Dickinson and Marquette counties were added because EAB was detected during the 2015 trapping program. Although not known to be infested at the time, Baraga and Menominee counties were added to the list of quarantined counties in the revision because they were close enough to counties known to be infested that there was a low level of confidence that EAB was not already in them.  To date, EAB has not been detected in any of the counties in Wisconsin that border Michigan. 

Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon counties remain un-quarantined. The movement of regulated articles, including all hardwood firewood, from the quarantined counties in the Upper Peninsula into Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon counties is prohibited unless done under a compliance agreement issued by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division.

Firewood certified for the Federal Emerald Ash Borer Quarantine by USDA-APHIS is exempt if it is packaged, bears a USDA compliance stamp and is clearly marked with the producer’s name and address.

The Lower Peninsula continues to be quarantined in its entirety and is designated as the Quarantine Level I area.  Movement of articles regulated by the EAB Quarantine, including all hardwood firewood, can only take place from the Quarantine Level I area in the Lower Peninsula into the Upper Peninsula if done under a valid MDARD Compliance Agreement.

Travelers should continue to only use local sources of firewood, burn what they buy, and not take any unused firewood back home or to their next location.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources Land Use Order of the Director issued in 2003 remains in effect.  The Order prohibits the possession of ash wood with bark attached on all state-owned lands. The Land Use Order can be viewed in its entirety by clicking here.

For more information, go to MDARD’s EAB webpage at www.michigan.gov/EAB.

Other serious forest pests can also be moved on or in firewood.  Michigan’s external Thousand Cankers Disease of Walnut Quarantine prohibits the movement of hardwood firewood from or through Ohio and Indiana into Michigan. For more information go to MDARD’s plant pest quarantine webpage at www.michigan.gov/pestquarantines.

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