Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
posted
Woodstove owners urged to buy local
Published: September 26, 2008 By ED MERRIMAN
Baker City Herald
Buy local has a whole new meaning when it comes to preventing the spread of invasive species, pests and plant diseases as Oregonians stock up on firewood this fall and winter.
With the arrival of colder weather, homeowners who heat with wood or those who enjoy a crackling fireplace are in the market for firewood, but the Oregon Department of Agriculture is urging consumers to avoid purchasing firewood cut in other regions of the state or from out-of-state.
While the spread of invasive species to Oregon from imported firewood is a major concern, Oregonians should also be aware that pests like ticks that pose human health threats can also be transported on firewood transported from one side of the state to the other.
"We'd like for everyone to become aware that firewood is a pathway for moving invasive species, and it's easy to fix that pathway. Just buy local," said Dan Hilburn, administrator of the ODA's Plant Division and a member of the Oregon Invasive Species Council. "There is plenty of it around. Buy firewood that is produced locally and burn it locally."
For consumers, the best advice is to ask the seller where the firewood came from. If the seller can't assure you the wood is local, buy it from someone who can, Hilburn said.
The supply of local firewood should be abundant this year, based on sales of commercial wood permits on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
As of late July, the forest's sales of commercial firewood permits in 2008 exceeded last year's total, for the same period, by 98 cords -- 269 cords compared with 171 last year.
Permit sales for personal use were also up, by 57 cords.
Barney Walton of Baker City sells firewood for $150 per cord split and delivered within Baker City or for $1 per mile extra outside Baker City.
While ticks, carpenter ants and black stink bugs can be a problem in some forested areas of Northeastern Oregon, Walton said he and other professional woodcutters strive to steer clear of infested areas.
"In the areas I've been cutting wood, I haven't seen any ticks and I haven't seen any on myself ," Walton said. "Some of the tamarack has a stink bug on it, but it is not harmful to humans."
Other than that, Walton said he occasionally runs into a tree infested with carpenter ants, but he said they're easy to spot and clean out when the wood is being split.
Walton can be reached at 541-401-8561.
Farel Baxter, a retired school teacher, returned to the labor of love of his youth when he took up firewood cutting as a hobby. His price per cord varies with the price of gas, but he currently charges $155 per cord split and delivered to senior citizens. For buyers he figures are young and healthy enough to split the wood themselves, Baxter charges an extra $10 a cord if he does the splitting.
"I'm 65 years old myself, so splitting wood is harder for me than it would be for some young buck," Baxter said.
His father was a district ranger in the old Union Ranger District when he was growing up, and he learned about pests invading area trees while working for the Forest Service himself for five years prior to embarking on his teaching career.
Baxter said he sometimes finds tussock moths in red fir and Douglas-fir, bark beetles in pines, and western casebearers in tamaracks.
Like Walton, Baxter said he eradicates the big black carpenter ants, which are most commonly found in overly-cured dead trees picked up off the ground.
"I carry some spray with me, and I spray the carpenter ants if I find any in a load of wood," said Baxter, who can be reached for firewood orders at 519-8640 or 519-8630.
Other local area firewood cutters can be reached at 518-7777 for a supplier of split lodgepole pine firewood for $150 per cord or $80 for a half cord delivered in Baker City, or for tamarack and red fir at $160 per cord call 519-7056. Seasoned tamarack and red fir is also available at 541-403-2502.
Whether it is used at a campground or at home, people selling and buying firewood often transport it great distances, possibly taking with them bugs or diseases, according to the ODA.
"Places that have invasive species problems like sudden oak death, emerald ash borer, or Asian longhorned beetle, have lots of dying trees," Hilburn said. "People are cutting those trees for firewood and moving it. The beetles and diseases are showing up hundreds of miles away."
Many trees that end up providing firewood are dying in the first place because they are afflicted with an invasive species. The might be dead, but the bugs and diseases inside go right on living, Hilburn said.
Even firewood that is split into small pieces may contain the insect or disease. If firewood is stored for any great length of time, the threat of bugs or diseases spreading increases, Hilburn said.
To avoid bringing pest problems into your neighborhood or home, be sure to inspect firewood to make sure it is free of unwanted bugs.
"At the very least, if you purchase firewood from a far away source, burn it right away," said Hilburn. "Still, it is better to buy the local stuff. It's better for the environment, it is in abundance, and it is often cheaper."
The concern over firewood is stronger this year, largely because of a potential for the emerald ash borer to spread. That bug has caused extensive damage and has killed millions of ash trees in Michigan and parts of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Ontario, Canada.
"Normally, the emerald ash borer only flies a few miles on its own," said Hilburn. "But in the Midwest, they have seen a 300- to 400-mile jump believed to be caused by transported firewood. If it's going to move that quickly across the country, Oregon could be at risk in the near future," Hilburn said.
Closer to Oregon, trees in California have succumbed to sudden oak death. Even though California has regulations prohibiting the transportation of firewood from quarantined areas, it's impossible to guarantee firewood will not cross the Oregon border.
Another way to prevent the spread of plant diseases and pests is to kiln dry firewood the same way companies do for imported timber. The high heat destroys insects and pathogens.
posted
Robert Lane from UC Berkeley has done tick studies and found ticks do often hang around logs and wood.
Collecting kindling and carrying firewood are two high risk ways to come in contact with ticks.
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Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
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Hi Angelica,
Yes, Mr. Lane has completed some wonderful studies. I appreciate his work very much.
I know that firewood was one way that I became infected while living in Colorado. We had 4 wood stoves to keep stoked during the long cold winter.
Not only did the wood harbor bugs from other locations...but...it also was a great place to harbor mice.
And, we all know what mice bring with them, right?
So, every arm full that I took into the house had the potential of an infection possibility.
...
Now that I know better, I would strongly suggest...
1. Wear gloves and a shirt or jacket that have been treated with permanone (or another bug KILLING concoction) when carrying wood into the house!
2. Prepare a designated place for wood that is brought into the house by placing it on an old towel or other material that also has been sprayed with permanone (or another bug KILLING concoction).
Just by taking these 2 precautions, we can avoid being bit ourselves and avoid bringing bugs into the house and letting them roam to bite others!
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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Angelica
Unregistered
posted
I think where I live there is an organization that will give you some sort of stand or house that attracts owls to deal with the mouse population from what I have heard.
I need to contact them. I do not have a wood stove but my landlord has two he uses and he keeps his giant wood pile meant to last him for a year and a half closer to my house then his.
He has a cat for the mice but we have too many mice for one cat to deal with. It is rural woodsy here and a large piece of land.
Ticks are a problem here.
I also am also curious if cats eat mice if they can then get Lyme disease or cos that way? We know they are not cooking the mice first because they like them rare.
I have read that 40% of the cats in Calif. have bart. My landlord's cat likes to hang out on my deck most of the time around me and only goes over to their house for dinner.
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Melanie Reber
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Member # 3707
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Hi again Angelica,
I don't think I have ever seen a study on animals acquiring TBDs from ingesting the tick. Now, that does not mean that it can't happen as we know, but I just have not seen it mentioned anywhere.
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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Angelica
Unregistered
posted
I was worried more about them dining on diseased mouse.
If the mouse has Lyme disease or say bartonella and then the cat eats the mouse wouldn't it be like a human eating under cooked venison?
Puma Cat likes to eat her mice on the rare side.
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Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
posted
Now THAT is a really good point.
We DO know that some TBDs can be acquired from transdermal contact, digestion, and/or inhalation of infected material.
There is also the blood to blood mode of some TBD transmission. So, if that infected critter; mouse, squirrel, bird, chipmunk, whatever, scratched or bit the cat, there you go.
Bartonella, Brucellosis, Colorado Tick Fever, Mycoplasma, Q0fever, Relapsing fever, RMSF and Tularemia ALL can be transmitted from other means besides tick BITES.
There is just SO much that we do not know...and so much that we DO know that is not common knowledge.
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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Angelica
Unregistered
posted
I think Betty posted before about venison being not something people should eat due to the risk of getting Lyme disease. I do know it is a question one LLMD does ask new patients. "Have you eaten an venison?"
I was at a party the other night where they were serving moose that the hostess dragged back from Alaska. I was more then happy to pass on trying any.
She said she carried it back on an airplane. Now we know how those ticks get on airplanes. I am sure it was wrapped up but I thought it was kind of a strange thing to drag home from Alaska.
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Melanie Reber
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 3707
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"She said she carried it back on an airplane. Now we know how those ticks get on airplanes."
Hahhahhahhaaha!
(was it a Palin party by chance?)
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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Angelica
Unregistered
posted
Definitely NOT!!!!!!
I did notice the local grocery store here is selling firewood from the next county up. I think they may even have a worse Lyme disease problem then we do. But of course now we have their ticks delivered for free on our firewood.
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