Statewide quarantine a relief for Perry County firewood dealers

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Firewood dealers and community leaders breathed a sigh of relief this week after learning that a proposed quarantine on wood products would include the entire state.

Fears of a quarantine on Perry County firewood began this summer, when a Missouri Department of Agriculture field agent found emerald ash borers in a Perryville park.

According to the department's website, the destructive Asian beetle -- whose larvae kill ash trees by feeding on their inner bark -- turned up in Detroit in 2002 and made its way to Missouri by July 2008.

Until recently, state conservation experts tried to limit the insect's spread by placing individual counties under quarantine.

Such a quarantine could have devastated Perry County firewood dealers, who depend on customers in other parts of the state, county leaders said.

"I don't have an actual calculation, but I've heard it would be in the millions, because we have lots of wood, and firewood is a big industry in the county," said Scott Sattler, executive director for the Perry County Economic Development Authority.

The statewide quarantine means local firewood dealers can continue to transport their products to customers in other parts of the state, including the lucrative St. Louis market.

Thanks to a similar quarantine in Illinois, dealers with special permits also can transport firewood to Chicago and other markets on the east side of the Mississippi River, Sattler said.

"I'd stop short of calling it a victory, because it's certainly unfortunate that we're all struggling with that little critter, but it's a movement in the right direction, and it's going to be good for the local folks here that depend on wood and wood products for their livelihood," said Perryville city administrator Brent Buerck.

Sattler said the decision to expand the quarantine was based on science, not economics.

"This is a natural resource decision. They had traps around several different counties, and when they got all their data … it's not limited to Perry County. It's spreading," he said.

As one local firewood hauler noted, beetles have no respect for human boundaries.

"Fly to the end of the county line, stop and turn around … that's not going to work," said Jay Stortz, who owns Jay's Firewood and Mulch in Perryville. "...When they find the bug, it has to happen, but they're not going to stop the bug anyway, so they did the right thing by just quarantining the whole state."

Although the move likely saved Stortz's firewood business, the threat of a more localized quarantine still created some expensive headaches.

Freshly cut firewood is too wet to burn well, so firewood dealers have to stock up on "green" wood several months in advance and let it season before reselling it.

That meant Stortz already had thousands of dollars' worth of stock on hand that would have become virtually worthless in the event of a countywide quarantine.

To protect his investment, Stortz spent three and a half days and between $14,000 and $15,000 moving his existing inventory out of the county in July, he said.

He also hesitated to add to his stock.

"That's become a big problem, because I couldn't go purchase more and have more spoken for and not be able to use it or deliver it," Stortz said. "Now we are fighting the battle of having product that's ready. … It's out there. I've just got to find it right now."

Meanwhile, conservation officials still have a bug problem they aren't sure how to solve.

"I think at this point, we kind of threw up our hands and said, 'Well, they're everywhere,'" said Frank Wideman, natural resources engineer for the University of Missouri Extension.

Because the insects burrow under the bark, spraying surface-level pesticides won't kill them, and injecting insecticides into thousands of acres worth of individual trees isn't practical, Wideman said.

Neither is destroying all the ash trees -- which make up just 3 to 4 percent of Missouri's forests -- and then replanting them later, he said.

"It'd be really hard to go into the woods and cut every ash tree down," Wideman said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Perryville, Mo.