Pine quarantine to limit lumbering industry

MONTPELIER, Vt. – The discovery of a small beetle that damages pine trees has prompted a five-county quarantine in three northern New England states.

The federal quarantine will restrict the distribution of pine products from Essex, Orleans, and Caledonia Counties in Vermont; Coos County in New Hampshire and Oxford County in Maine, starting Jan. 1.

The quarantine was imposed by the federal government and will affect loggers and sawmills that ship pine products south.

It’s unlikely to have any impact on Christmas tree producers, not only because of its timing but because they usually grow balsam and fraser fir, which don’t attract the beetle, said Jack Dwyer, chief of marketing, utilization and development at the state Department of Forests and Parks.

Dwyer added that the overall threat posed by the beetles appears to be slight.

“I think we’ve found maybe 17 beetles in the state over the past three or four years,” he said. “I don’t call it a lot.”

It’s unclear what impact the quarantine will have on the five northern New England counties, which are the only places where the beetles have been found. The three Vermont counties affected have 350 loggers and 15 sawmills that process about $1.8 million worth of logs every year, Dwyer said. The bark mulch industry in those counties generates another $1.5 million.

After Jan. 1, all logs that are shipped out of the affected counties must be inspected for the beetles.

The impact of the quarantine will be felt most between April 1 and July 1, when no logs with the bark on them can be shipped out of the counties, even if they are inspected.

Spring is when the beetles fly, Dwyer said, and inspections couldn’t guarantee that the logs were beetle-free.

From July 1 to Nov. 1, logs can be shipped out without restrictions, Dwyer said. And from Nov. 1 to April 1, the industry can ship out logs, but they must be sawn up before April 1. The federal and state agriculture departments are responsible for enforcing the quarantine.

The quarantine is good news for at least one sawmill, Piette and Sons in Irasburg. Owner Denis Piette said he is already getting inquiries from loggers who will need the bark stripped from their logs after Jan. 1.

“It’s going to hurt everybody but us,” Piette said Wednesday. “Our inventory is going to be so high we won’t be able to take it all.”

Dwyer said the quarantine might be unnecessary, because it’s unlikely any beetles would travel out of the counties on logs. The beetles spend the winter in the stump close to the ground, and most trees are cut off above the spot where the beetles stay.

“The chances of them being in there are remote,” he said. Of the quarantine, he said. “I don’t know that it’s going to prove anything, but it’s something I think we can live with.”