AGENCY INFORMATION

• Pine Shoot Beetle
• Quarantine Information

NOTIFICATION RE: State of Maine PSB quarantine restricting movement of pine logs and bark

On December 4, 2001, the State of Maine officially established an internal state quarantine against the pine shoot beetle (PSB). This action was taken to prevent movement of PSB from infested sites in northern Oxford County and other infested areas outside Maine into the uninfested regions of Maine. If the State had not established this internal quarantine, all of Maine would have been placed under federal PSB quarantine, and potentially infested pine logs and bark products from elsewhere could have been shipped anywhere in the state. The state quarantine rules   will later amended to include northern Franklin County (see last paragraph below).

The pine shoot beetle, Tomicus piniperda, (PSB) is a new forest pest that was originally detected in New England in New Hampshire and Vermont in 1999. This pest is a bark beetle which attacks and injures hard pines, (in our area primarily red, jack, and Scots pines) but can also breed in eastern white pine. It was first collected in Maine in northern Oxford County in 2000. It was recorded again in Adamstown in 2001, and in early December USDA notified the Maine Forest Service that a second specimen trapped in Rangeley in May also had just been identified (see last paragraph below).

On July 24, 2001, the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Pest Quarantine (APHIS PPQ), under their Interim Rule authorities, placed all of Oxford County under quarantine for PSB. This federal interim rule is preliminary and is still under review. Depending on the outcome of current negotiations between Maine and APHIS, the state regulation may have to be changed to parallel final USDA quarantine rules.

Irrespective of the final outcome of these negotiations, if you receive, process, or move pine products with bark in Maine that have originated in an area regulated under the PSB quarantine you are required to have a PSB compliance agreement issued by the Maine Forest Service and must abide by State PSB quarantine regulations.

The local regulated areas include that portion of Oxford county north of the Appalachian trail in Maine; Coos county in NH; Caledonia, Essex and Orleans counties in VT; and 19 administrative regions south of the St. Lawrence river in Quebec. These rules apply to any business concerns buying, selling or transporting pine products with bark: mills, log concentration yards, bark processors, loggers, and land owners. A general summary of the PSB quarantine rules is attached. We will contact you if these rules were to change to conform to new USDA quarantine regulations.

To request a compliance agreement, or if you have any questions about this pine quarantine, contact:

Allison Kanoti
Insect & Disease Lab.
50 Hospital St.
Augusta, ME 04330
Tel.: (207) 287-3147 FAX 287-2432

PROPOSED AMENDMENT: In early December, USDA APHIS notified the State that a beetle it trapped last May in Rangeley (Northern Franklin County) had just been confirmed to be a pine shoot beetle. To protect the pine resource and prevent the spread of the beetle, the Maine Department of Agriculture will be proposing an amendment to the new State quarantine to expand the area quarantined for PSB to include that part of Franklin County north of the Appalachian Trail. Comments regarding the proposed amendment will be solicited by the end of January.

January 10, 2002