I saw the huge thread posted regarding woodworkers and their environmentalist sentiments. Wow: a hot button issue. So I’m going to start more trouble.
Anyone other than me notice that it seems like every week another bug or fungus is being brought over in pallet or crate wood from China that loves to kill our American hardwoods and pines? When I was a kid we only had to worry about Chestnut Blight and Dutch Elm Disease and then the Gypsy Moth. Now we have the Emerald Ash Borer, Maple Decline, Oak Wilt, Oak Decline, the Asian Longhorn Beetle, the Wooly Aldegid (eats Hemlocks), White Pine Blister Rust, a new fungus that’s just about to put Butternut on the endangered species list right before it goes the way of the chestnut. And some new fungus that’s killing the hell out of beech. I know I’m missing some. Biogeography (yes, I’m a wildlife biologist when not taking care of my kids or – never enough – in the shop) pretty much tells us that our forests, and source of favorite local woods, doesn’t stand a chance if we continue to allow the import business (shipping business, port business) to bring in these pests. Rules on fumigating crates, etc. have been slow in coming and I don’t know how effective they’ll be.
Next time you attend a town meeting or speak to your local rep, you might want to bring this up and ask them to insist on speeding up rules that will require fumigation of crating, etc. I’d like to see the magazine do an article on this as well to raise the awareness of this issue and to allow someone else to rant about the problem other than me.
Replies
Thanks for highlighting a problem that I have never heard about. It sounds like it really needs more light shed on it. Is chestnut really gone?
Almost, but not really. Do a google on "The American Chestnut Foundation". They are very active in re-establishing a disease resistant chestnut tree.
Thanks for your comments . . . nicely done: described a problem and offered a solution. One doesn't run into that approach often enough.
(I was relieved you didn't suggest halting global trade.)
Truejoint
You are on a commendable crusade, but I am not comfortable with all the blame being put on product coming from China. About 10 years ago I opened a shipping container that had come from Italy to the United States (Los Angeles to be exact). When I opened the doors a swarm of unidentified insects flew out out the door and became part of the American insect population.
There have been laws and processes on the books for many years to protect the American and Canadian forests from unwanted foreign insect infestation. Maybe you should be saying that the responsible authorities are not doing their jobs.
Don't blame China or any one of the trading partners the USA and Canada do business with. Look to the local authorities that need to enforce the laws that already exist with the tools at their disposal. International trade is not going to stop. JL
Edited 3/6/2007 6:51 pm ET by jeanlou
I agree. The government needs to enforce the laws uniformly. I live near 3 different ports and it seems like they are granted a lot of autonomy.
The bottomline is that many American trees have closely related species in Europe and Asia. The bugs and fungi they've adapted to can infect our trees, but ours have developed no immunity to them. Pretty scary when you realize that even the redwoods, oaks, and maples have Asian equivelents or near equivelents. What will be left in a hundred years?
On a side note, I moved to Texas 20 years ago and was pleasantly surprised to see lots of big American Elms. Either they are partially immune to the disease down here or its too damn hot for the fungus that kills them up north.
I live in Texas too, and have often wondered why we have so many elms.
Truejoint
In the late 1970s I had a lovely rural property, but was forced to remove 10 huge elms because of disease, and 1 chestnut because kids had decided to spike the tree for whatever the reason. The chestnut was healthy and I used the wood for carving, once dry.
Now I live in a suburb of Quebec City that is a sugar maple bush. The trees are not healthy, but the reason is not bugs, it is acid rain and other industrial pollution that travels the wind currents, much of it from the United States and some from Canada.
Many people think our trees, like our water, will last forever. They are wrong. The reason they are wrong is because our society makes a great deal of noise about caring for the environment but only does the minimum required to permit the politicians to show how they are doing all they can to stop the deterioration.
Keep fighting the good fight. JL
Jeanlou, it is worse than you say. There are real environmental problems that shold be managed squarely. However, most of the proposals and agencies get hijacked by other political interests of which a few are:+ People who want a more even distribution of global resources;
+ People who want a competitive advantage of one kind or another;
+ People who would prefer a more state-managed and socialistic economy;
+ People who are fundamentally repelled by modern society and wish to cause vatious kinds of change.
+ People who fear any of the above and respond reactively to proposalsI am not here to advocate or denounce any of those things. This is not a political forum. However, it is simply true that straightforward solutions just don't seem possible because of the political dynamics. And so the damage continues and the forests die.
Joe
Maybe it is like David said, that Mother Nature will find a way.
While we are waiting, we still can work our wood and holiday at the cottage on the lake and if we are fortunate even swim in it if we are careful not to swallow...don't eat the fish though...no more than 1 four ounce fish meal of fresh water fish coming from the pristine Quebec lake waters each 5 weeks or so; if you do not want to pass the permitted "safe" ingestion levels of mercury infested fish meat. (from a fisheries map I saw several years ago).
Yes, it is worse than we think. JL
Edited 3/6/2007 6:27 pm ET by jeanlou
Does anybody know if other nations have similar problems with our crates or exports in general? Do we involuntarily export American (US/Canadian) critters that cause problems in the rest of the world?
Are we just better stewards of our natural environment and thus more aware of these issues? Any trade partners around who could enlighten us?
I don't know why Truejoint thinks it is a one way thing....containers go everywhere in the world and there is simply no way of guarranteeing 100 percent that insects, fungi etc will not also go too.
Here in New Zealand they are paranoid about importing foreign insects etc and take stringent measures-despite this things can survive-I know because they came in the container that brought my stuff here-example- wasp larvae in their mud "houses" that were inside an electric motor....Not to mention the soil itself.Philip Marcou
Crayfish, mink and grey squirrels from north America are a small selection of pests causing havoc here in the UK. There are invasive plant and animal species from all around the world that are having a detrimental effect. Elms were decimated by Dutch elm disease. I can't recall now the source, and chestnuts are suffering from what I think is called weeping canker.
The list of imported 'pests' from one part of the world to another is pretty big. Slainte. Richard Jones Furniture
Indeed. I recall reading that the Scottish red Squirrel is in danger beause of competition from the Greys. Now here is an odd one -- EARTHWORMS. Some kinds of earthworms in huge supply in North America are non-native. In most places, people are glad to have them nonetheless, because they are among the greatest of soil improvers. However, in the northern forests from Maine to Minnesota, they are a problem because the digest the leaf litter that is essential to many plants, and also to insulate tree roots. Most came as fish bait.Who'd have thunk it?
all earthworms, the 'housefly'
rats all brought to north america
people
Richard,
Crayfish, mink and grey squirrels from north America are a small selection of pests causing havoc here in the UK
I have a perfect solution to your problem with the crayfish.
1. Obtain large boiling pot - capable of holding 15 or so gallons of water
2. Gather a box of salt, 2-4 pounds cayenne pepper, onions, celery, potatoes, garlic
3. Harvest the nasty little buggers and keep them alive until the very second you drop them in the boiling hot water (uh-oh, here comes PETA)
One taste of these and you will be cultivating them in your backyard for sure!
Lee
P.S. All kidding aside, I didn't realize crayfish were an invasive animal. What kind of problems are they causing?
Edited 3/6/2007 12:15 pm by mapleman
Lee,
You're makin' me hungry, man! It's been a while since I had fresh crayfish.....
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"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that...."
-- A.C. Clarke
Somehow mapleman they were imported into the UK live. I may be wrong, but I think they may have been imported to start some kind of crawdad fish farming enterprise. Some escaped, bred and multiplied and they are gradually infesting some river and pond bottoms. They are disturbing the balance of the ecosystem by driving out the native bottom feeders, and they are too big for the native species that live on the bottom feeders to handle. Something like that anyway.
Unfortunately I never eat fish of any sort. I seem to be allergic to all water creatures, and I never could face eating a plate of the blasted things even when I lived in Houston and they seemed to be on every bar and restarant's menu. The wife loves them. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
Lee
The bass in my pond love those! And, I don't even need to cook em'. I just hook em' right behind the tail, and throw em' out there. They pretty much do the rest, and "wham", fish for lunch.
Everytime it rains during the summer, I end up having to fish 3 or 4 of them things out of my pool. The wife won't go near them, so I have to do it in the morning before I get busy.
I don't know why I replied, I just thought of that little story when I saw that plate of em'.
Jeff
Jeff,
How big are your bass? I stocked some in my pond, but they were tiny (from the fish hatchery)3 or so years ago. Now they are about 1- 1 1/2 # each. Can't wait till they hit 5-6#. Nothing like a bass fighting to get the 'ol blood pumpin'.
Cheers,
Lee
I've got a 5 lb.'er in there that I know of for sure, because I've caught her 4 times. She goes right back in. To be truthful, I don't eat much bass. I catch them and put them back. I've eaten maybe a dozen, but I really like to just go there for an hour or two of relaxation. Most are the same size as you describe, 1 to 1 1/2 pounds. Fun to catch, but hardly worth falling under Magua's knife.
Now, walleye are an entirely different issue. I used to go to Lake Erie every year, but now I go to Lake Edmonds Lodge in Northern Manitoba. It's a fly in deal, no roads, and the fishing is beyond rediculous.
Jeff
chscholz
I do not think anyone makes crates and pallets from kiln dried lumber.
Air dried lumber keeps the bug population healthy and active as they travel from one part of the world to the other. I have no facts or statistics to support my statement, but common sense tells me that we export the nasties as much as we import them.
As Philip says in his post, he received wasps in an electric motor. If there is any soil present in the shipment, it will most likely not be dealt with as a hazmat, it will be swept out of the container onto the ground, where the little devils, if present, will thrive for a while, because they do not have any natural predators yet.(since they are new to the neighbourhood) JL
Quite right, and the situation causes much heartache for those of us who are lucky enough to be custodians of some of the ancient virgin forest.
Chestnut, while not gone, might as well be. Before the blight, it was the most common tree in the eastern forests. Ancient trees spread so widely in the crown, it is said, that an entire New England village could picnic under one of them. Many old homes are made of chestnut, as were the gunstocks of the Springfield rifle that the Doughboys carried in the Great War.
Now it is an event to see a Chestnut larger than 6 inches DBH. Even if a resistant strain is found, it will be four human generations or more before the great trees of yore can be replaced.
Truejoint,
As others have said, it's a real problem but it's not one-way, it's quite universal.
The US has fairly good regulations concerning import of any wood products, but they are not always strictly enforced and it is probably impossible to to so. A bit of my own personal experience -
My shop (in Israel) produced office cabinets to be shipped to New York. In order to clear a container at a US port of entry, you need to show a certificate of fumigation, provided by a licensed exterminator which indicates what treatment was given, etc. The furniture was almost entirely veneered MDF, but there was about 1000 bd.ft. of solid wenge beams and countertops as part of the shipment. I had the entire pile of wenge fumigated before we planed the first board. On the basis of that, I received a perfectly legal fumigation certificate for the whole container. Might there have been some infestation in the veneers? I'm confident there wasn't, but theoretically it's not impossible. I also know for a fact, that certificates like that can be bought in many places in the world, the same as false certificates of origin, and any other document that one might need.
Most containers are not physically examined. They are often x-rayed to see if the contents correspond to the documents, and don't contain weapons, etc. Only if some suspicion arises do customs authorities open and physically examine the contents. It leaves a lot of room for infested items to slip through, regardless of the motives of the shipper. And more - the millions of people flying overseas every day are undoubtedly unwitting carriers of who-knows-what. It doesn't require a container load to start an epidemic.
I don't know what can actually be done about the problem. Trade and travel are not decreasing, nor would anyone actually wish them to. Maybe Mother Nature will find a way through it all.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
David
You touch on the real problem, the one of logistics. How can every single container actually be opened and verified?
The real way would be that the receiving country fumigate the contents of the container before it is opened...but even there I can see a hundred problems as I say this. JL
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