Transporting logs across state lines

[bandmiller2]

A friend asked me last night if he could haul walnut logs from the midwest back to Ma. for me to mill,His truck returns empty.Is their any legal reason he can't,quarintine or that sort of problem??Frank C.

[thecfarm]

Call up the state,they wiil know.When I had some white pine cut here on my land,the guy cutting had to get a wavier.Seems like white pine could not be transported out of Kenebec County.I forget the reason now.I live right on the county line.In Franklin County we was all set,but cut a tree 5 feet away,than you need  a special permit.Just a phone call and we was all set.

[Ironwood]

I spoke to the Pa.  DEP Quarenteen expert last week. I run bark on lumber/ logs all over. "NO problem" he told me. Only thing regulated by quarenteen is firewood. That doesnt make any sense to me, but that was his response. I was wondering if I needed a certification paper of some type. NOPE.

Ironwood

[beenthere]

Firewood seems to be the "whipping boy" when it comes to the Gov't having to show they are doing "something" about a critter on the move. Easier to pick on firewood, than go after the movement of logs and pulp wood. No problem moving other forest products, apparently.

Cranks me a bit when the quarantines that surround the Emerald Ash Borer seem to happen only after discovery of the EAB in a county, and only for firewood movement. But there is admission to the facts that the EAB has likely been there for several years before being detected.
So no wonder the EAB has moved fairly quickly from MI to at least 13 states in just a few years.  Such quarantines do not seem to work, IMO.   Maybe others can enlighten me on this. Wouldn't be the first time I was misled by my extrapolations. 

[Ironwood]

The reality is ...........Nature always wins. There will be no stopping the spread unless they find some other "non native" thingy to fight it, and then what will that upset.??? We humans gotta know by now, taint much we can do, nature wins. FYI, IMHO.

Ironwood

[Ron Wenrich]

We've taken logs to Indiana from PA with no problems.  Canadians come in and pick up logs and take back with no problem.  Going overseas, then you'll have a problem with certain species.  We had to have a USDA inspection on oak logs, and then if it was too heavy in gypsy moth, we had to debark the logs.  I'm not sure if that applies to other species.  We have a German buyer coming in this week for tulip poplar.  Guess I'll find out.

The EAB quarantine is geared more to the weekenders who cut firewood and transport back home.  There are a lot more of those than loggers, and they are a lot less knowledgeable.  What I'm hearing here is public service announcements.  I don't know of anyone doing any type of inspections of firewood, even from the producers. 

[Ron Wenrich]

Update:  The only logs that we have had inspected went to Vietnam and Hong Kong.  We also had an inspection needed on some lumber bound for Pakistan.  We've sent logs to Europe and China without inspections. 

[WH_Conley]

The local Kopper's buyer started taking ash ties only as separate packs, because they had to be inspected before they left the yard, can't get inspector, now won't take ash at all.

[Ironwood]

Boy that's too bad, lots of good straight solid wood in many ash trees.

Ironwood

[Ron Wenrich]

The inspector comes out of the USDA.  For ash, all the bark has to be removed from the lumber or ties, if you're in the quarantine zone.  Lumber moves freely within the zone. 

Are you having any problem moving ash pallet cants?  I would think they would all have to be inspected, unless heat treating removes all bugs.  Pallets would be more likely to move out of the country than ties.

Koppers never bought ash ties until the need got high.  Ash splits a lot quicker than the other hardwoods, and they split with the mechanized spike machines.  Maybe Koppers is looking for a reason not to buy ash again.  They aren't buying in my area, and we're outside the zone, except for one county.