NH considers eliminating emerald ash borer quarantine

Ash trees make up about 6 percent of the state’s hardwood forests, netting at least $1 million for the forest products industry every year.

The emerald ash borer attacks ash trees, and infested trees die within three to five years. Originally discovered in Concord in March 2013, the non-native insect is now infecting trees in 54 towns in seven counties. Particularly hard hit are Belknap, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham, and Strafford counties, where a quarantine of all hardwood firewood, ash wood-products and all ash nursery stock has been in effect since 2011. Under the quarantine, these products can be bought and sold within the quarantine zone but can’t be removed from it.

That quarantine would end under a proposal that is currently under review, pending public comment.

A federal quarantine on removing products likely to contain ash wood from impacted counties would still be in place. This means that hardwood firewood and other wood products couldn’t be exported to states outside the federal quarantine zone – such as Maine – but can be transported to other quarantined states, like Vermont.

State officials say the benefits of the quarantine diminish as the infested area increases in size, now moving into Grafton County, so they propose replacing it with what they are calling “best management practices” to contain the spread. A full list of these practices can be viewed here. 

Those supporting the quarantine say a strict limitation on the movement of certain wood products is still the best way to address the problem, which has the potential to permanently change the state’s forest landscapes.