Celebrating Firewood Awareness Month
Fall is a season I associate with fires. For the many of us in the UP who rely on wood to heat our homes, it’s the time of year to start stacking logs for the long winter, stockpiling our own supplies at the same time the woodland critters do theirs. For others of us, the best autumn evenings are those spent around a campfire, chilled hands heated by the flames, telling scary stories as the wood crackles and glows back against the gaping maw of black night.
Unfortunately, these comforts can come at a heavy cost, as many harmful species live hidden in the very wood that warms us.
Take Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA for short). This tiny, invasive forest pest from Asia feeds on the sap of eastern hemlock trees, using their piercing mouthparts to create wounds in tree tissue from which they can suck nutrients and water. The loss of nutrients translates to a lack of leaf and twig growth, resulting in the death of infected trees within four to ten years. Downstate, HWA has already killed a significant portion of Michigan’s estimated 170 million eastern hemlocks, and infestations have steadily been creeping north. Once thought to be unable to survive harsh UP winters, HWA is now considered a very real threat as climate change results in ever-milder conditions.
Though its shimmery green shell may be charismatic enough to lull one into believing otherwise, the emerald dash borer is equally pernicious. Female beetles can lay up to 300 eggs each in the crevices of bark, which will eventually hatch and mature into larvae that burrow into a tree’s tissue, feeding on its nutrients, damaging its circulatory system, and eventually killing it within five years of infestation. The emerald ash borer entered the North American stage in 2002, when it was spotted outside Detroit. In the two decades since, it has killed 40 million trees in Michigan alone and spread to 37 other states; the impact on indigenous communities who rely on ash trees for culturally important traditions like basket-weaving has been especially high.
Two more invasives posing a risk to our forests are the spongy moth and spotted lanternfly. The former, a European native, has caused untold damage to Northeastern and Midwest forests since its introduction to the US over a century ago. Spongy moth caterpillars can survive on the leaves of over 300 tree and shrub species, including oaks, aspen, and birches, and repeated defoliation can cause forest stands to die within just a few years. Spongy moth infestations have been reported throughout both the upper and lower peninsulas, placing Michigan in their quarantine zone.
The latter species, the pervasive spotted lanternfly, has received significant public attention thanks to the “see it, squish it” campaign that began after its discovery in Pennsylvania in 2014. Like the spongy moth, the spotted lanternfly is infamous for its ability to damage and kill the wide range of plants whose sap it feeds on, including fruit and hardwood trees. In addition to depleting plants of energy reserves, spotted lanternflies excrete a sugary substance known as honeydew which attracts other pests and promoting the growth of sooty mold, another avenue by which plants can be killed.
Both spongy moth and spotted lanternfly females lay their eggs on available outdoor surfaces, including tree bark.
Invasive species aren’t the only danger potentially lurking beneath bark; diseases like beech bark disease and oak wilt (recently found in Marquette County) can also survive in and be inadvertently spread by the movement of untreated wood.
October is National Firewood Awareness month, making this a perfect time of year to remind ourselves of the role we all play in protecting our forests from pests and diseases. Whether you buy or cut your own firewood, try to ensure it is locally sourced. Ideally, untreated wood should be burned within a ten-mile radius of where it was harvested, even if it isn’t obviously infested. As research has shown some insects can survive up to three years in wood before emerging, this guideline remains relevant even with aged wood.
Fuel alternatives to untreated wood include certified heat-treated wood, pallets and scrap lumber, compressed wood chip logs, and manufactured logs. More information about these and other products can be found at dontmovefirewood.org. To find locally sourced firewood, visit firewoodscout.org.
There are a number of invasive species and illnesses posing a danger to our trees, but that danger can be contained if we make a collective effort to prevent pathways of spread. Buy local, burn local, and help ensure that the scariest stories remain those we tell around our fall fires.
Unfortunately, these comforts can come at a heavy cost, as many harmful species live hidden in the very wood that warms us.
Take Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA for short). This tiny, invasive forest pest from Asia feeds on the sap of eastern hemlock trees, using their piercing mouthparts to create wounds in tree tissue from which they can suck nutrients and water. The loss of nutrients translates to a lack of leaf and twig growth, resulting in the death of infected trees within four to ten years. Downstate, HWA has already killed a significant portion of Michigan’s estimated 170 million eastern hemlocks, and infestations have steadily been creeping north. Once thought to be unable to survive harsh UP winters, HWA is now considered a very real threat as climate change results in ever-milder conditions.
Though its shimmery green shell may be charismatic enough to lull one into believing otherwise, the emerald dash borer is equally pernicious. Female beetles can lay up to 300 eggs each in the crevices of bark, which will eventually hatch and mature into larvae that burrow into a tree’s tissue, feeding on its nutrients, damaging its circulatory system, and eventually killing it within five years of infestation. The emerald ash borer entered the North American stage in 2002, when it was spotted outside Detroit. In the two decades since, it has killed 40 million trees in Michigan alone and spread to 37 other states; the impact on indigenous communities who rely on ash trees for culturally important traditions like basket-weaving has been especially high.
Two more invasives posing a risk to our forests are the spongy moth and spotted lanternfly. The former, a European native, has caused untold damage to Northeastern and Midwest forests since its introduction to the US over a century ago. Spongy moth caterpillars can survive on the leaves of over 300 tree and shrub species, including oaks, aspen, and birches, and repeated defoliation can cause forest stands to die within just a few years. Spongy moth infestations have been reported throughout both the upper and lower peninsulas, placing Michigan in their quarantine zone.
The latter species, the pervasive spotted lanternfly, has received significant public attention thanks to the “see it, squish it” campaign that began after its discovery in Pennsylvania in 2014. Like the spongy moth, the spotted lanternfly is infamous for its ability to damage and kill the wide range of plants whose sap it feeds on, including fruit and hardwood trees. In addition to depleting plants of energy reserves, spotted lanternflies excrete a sugary substance known as honeydew which attracts other pests and promoting the growth of sooty mold, another avenue by which plants can be killed.
Both spongy moth and spotted lanternfly females lay their eggs on available outdoor surfaces, including tree bark.
Invasive species aren’t the only danger potentially lurking beneath bark; diseases like beech bark disease and oak wilt (recently found in Marquette County) can also survive in and be inadvertently spread by the movement of untreated wood.
October is National Firewood Awareness month, making this a perfect time of year to remind ourselves of the role we all play in protecting our forests from pests and diseases. Whether you buy or cut your own firewood, try to ensure it is locally sourced. Ideally, untreated wood should be burned within a ten-mile radius of where it was harvested, even if it isn’t obviously infested. As research has shown some insects can survive up to three years in wood before emerging, this guideline remains relevant even with aged wood.
Fuel alternatives to untreated wood include certified heat-treated wood, pallets and scrap lumber, compressed wood chip logs, and manufactured logs. More information about these and other products can be found at dontmovefirewood.org. To find locally sourced firewood, visit firewoodscout.org.
There are a number of invasive species and illnesses posing a danger to our trees, but that danger can be contained if we make a collective effort to prevent pathways of spread. Buy local, burn local, and help ensure that the scariest stories remain those we tell around our fall fires.
First published in the Pioneer Tribune on September 25, 2024