News

Ag chief places Haywood trees under quarantine

By Bill Moss, Published: January 4, 2013

The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has placed Haywood County wood products under quarantine due to a recent detection of thousand cankers disease in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The quarantine for now is unlikely to spread east to Transylvania or Henderson counties, a Department of Agriculture supervisor said.

The insect was discovered in Cataloochee Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains, said Jim Corbin, a western district supervisor for the plant industry division of the Agriculture Department.

"For the lumber people it's not that big a deal because they kiln dry it," he said. The tree affected by the disease, black walnut, is a specialty wood used for furniture, carving and musical instruments, he said. It's not as prevalent a hardwood for lumber as poplar and red oak. "There's not a lot of walnut harvested out of Western North Carolina," he said. "There's very few mills that even handle it because of the sap."

Still, the quarantine will affect some lumbering. "It's not a good thing," he said. Foresters will set traps to see how much the insect has spread. The quarantine "may be in place a good while," he said. "If it's isolated and they don't pick it up again they could lift it."

Thousand cankers disease is a newly recognized disease primarily affecting black walnut trees. It is caused by the Geosmithia morbida fungus, which is spread by the walnut twig beetle. Thousand cankers disease has produced widespread death of black walnuts in many western states during the past decade. Other species of walnut, such as Arizona walnut, English walnut and California walnut, have also shown varying degrees of susceptibility to this fungus.

"This marks the first time the disease has been detected in the state, and by placing restrictions on a variety of plant material and wood products we hope to keep the disease from spreading into other counties," Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a statement. "Something as simple as moving firewood from an infected area to an uninfected county could increase the risk of spreading this disease."

The following items fall under the quarantine restrictions: walnut plants and plant parts including firewood, lumber, logs, stumps, roots, branches, and composted and uncomposted chips. Regulated items cannot be moved outside the county. Exceptions to the quarantine restrictions include nuts, nut meats, hulls, processed lumber with square edges that is 100 percent bark free and kiln-dried, and finished wood products without bark, such as furniture, instruments and gun stocks.

NCDA&CS Plant Industry Division and N.C. Forest Service personnel will continue to monitor counties across North Carolina for the presence of this disease.

Anyone with questions about this quarantine should contact Phil Wilson, NCDA&CS plant pest administrator, at 919-707-3730, or go to the website http://ncforestservice.gov/forest_health/forest_health_thousandcankers.htm.