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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Foreign
Forest Pests Threaten America's Already Dwindling Forests
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
12/4/96
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE by EE
Following
is a photocopy of an excellent Village Voice article which
discusses
the potential impacts of introduced forest and timber pests
upon
America's already diminished forests.
Serious threats to maple
trees
and other species are highlighted, whose potential impact is
compared
to the historical demise of American Chestnut and American
Elm. The suggestion is made that the increase of
imported logs into
America
may be opening up additional species to impacts from foreign
pests
for which they have no natural protection.
This is one of a
number
of pressing forest health issues besides the obvious over
harvest
occurring nearly everywhere. Other
examples of non-
traditional
forest health stresses include air pollution (particularly
ozone)
damage, competition from exotic introduced plant species, and
others. Forests are an important indicator of larger
system
ecological
health.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Bugs
Brought In From Abroad Threaten America's Already Dwindling
Forests
The
Village Voice Worldwide
Internet
Site: http://www.villagevoice.com:80/
by
James Ridgeway & Jeffrey St. Clair
12/3/96
WASHINGTON,
D.C. At the turn of the century, the majestic American
chestnut
tree filled up to 25 per cent of the eastern forests and
supported
an entire complex ecosystem. By 1950, a rapidly spreading
fungus-traced
only last year to a source in Japan-had virtually
wiped
out the chestnut. Later in the 1950s, the elm trees that lined
the
streets of New York City fell prey to Dutch elm disease, a plague
that
spread westward and destroyed two thirds of the nation's elms.
The
apparent source of the disease was a single imported log, which
rode
the rails west from New York through Pennsylvania and into Ohio.
Today,
scientists are in a panic over the threat to another abundant
American
tree species, the maple. The source of all their worries is a
small,
spotted bug found crawling out of a Brooklyn maple. The
September
discovery of this imported pest-brought in this time from
China-has
led some scientists to call for a preemptive strike that
would
cost the borough's streets and parks hundreds of its maple
trees.
More important, it has brought home questions about loosening
environmental
regulations in a time of unrestricted international
trade.
When
they first saw the little telltale holes in Brooklyn maples,
authorities
thought juvenile delinquents had been at work. Instead,
scientists
discovered one of two initial specimens of the seldom seen
Asian
longhorn beetle (the other was spotted in Amityville, Long
Island).
"I gasped when I saw it," said E. Richard Hoebeke, a Cornell
University
entomologist who made the discovery. "I knew this wasn't a
species
native to North America."
Entomologists
believe the bug could follow in the path of the chestnut
and elm
blights, and end up killing upward of 8 million trees on the
East
Coast, many of them maples. Such a plague would not only be an
environmental
tragedy but spell ruin for much of the tourist and maple
sugar
industries. "If it's happened here, it certainly may rear its
ugly
head once again," Hoebeke said. "It could have a grave, profound
impact
on our nation's forests."
In
response, some scientists have recommended cutting down numerous
maples
in Brooklyn and Amityville in order to kill the invaders, and
taking
whatever steps necessary to stop the bugs from getting off Long
Island
to the mainland. If the insects should advance, they could chew
their
way through approximately 300,000 acres of maple trees up and
down
the East Coast. "Should this beetle escape from Long Island . . .
the
magnitude of damage could far exceed that of any insect, including
the
gypsy moth, in forests, orchards, and in urban areas," warns an
ominous
pest risk-assessment report. The document, prepared
by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture along with New York state and
local
governments, contends that more than 800 million trees,
covering
62 per cent of the state's 18.6 million acres of forested
land,
are possible targets of the bug. Potential losses would run
into
the billions of dollars. The report continues, "The risk of
attack
in the United States is probably much greater than in China
because
we have a greater abundance of ALB's prime food source-
maples."
Unfortunately,
the discovery of the Brooklyn bug presages a much
broader
threat to America's already dwindling forests. The Asian
longhorn
beetle is just one of a new wave of invading pests and
diseases
being brought to American shores, the result of rising-and
increasingly
unregulated-foreign trade. Many of these exotic insects
and
fungi-with names like the Asian gypsy moth, the pine bark
beetle,
and the Mexican pitch canker-are carried in on foreign logs
that
have been cut down by international companies. These logging
companies
have been searching out wood supplies in the heart of the
world's
few remaining primal forests.
"One
of the real problems," says Fields Cobb Jr., a University of
California
forest pathologist, "is that as we start logging off
the
natural forests of the tropics and other remote areas, it will be
very
easy to overlook potentially dangerous pests and diseases.
These
agents are very obscure in their native habitats because natural
forests
in diverse ecosystems tend to suppress widespread pest
outbreaks."
When these new diseases are brought into the U.S., they
can
destroy not only species but whole ecosystems. The chestnut, for
example,
"was an unsurpassed source of food for wildlife," says Cobb.
"Dozens
of species depended on it, including the bald eagle." In
addition,
Cobb notes, lesser-quality oaks took the place of the
chestnut
tree. This opened the way for the emergence of another deadly
disease
called oak wilt, now threatening all the oaks in the
eastern
forests, and making those wooded areas much more susceptible
to the
ravages of the gypsy moth.
Imported
logs are coming to the U.S. in steadily increasing numbers.
These
logs are replacing the diminished supplies of American timber,
which
have been depleted by overcutting and, ironically, an increase
in
American logs being shipped overseas. The loosening of
environmentally
related trade rules under both GATT and NAFTA has
brought
on this increased exporting of timber.
For
years the USDA, which regulates the trade in raw logs, has
maintained
a policy of "zero tolerance" when it comes to pest risks in
timber.
In recent years, however, the department's Animal and Plant
Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) has eased this blanket prohibition
and set
forth rules for getting rid of the bugs by fumigation with the
pesticide
methyl bromide or by a heat treatment. The change in policy
resulted
from the USDA's concern that its regulations "not be applied
in a
manner which would constitute a disguised restriction on
international
trade."
Today,
international timber companies are importing raw logs from
Mexico,
Chile, New Zealand, and Brazil by truck and ship. Every
day,
12-wheelers roll up I-5, the West Coast's main north-south
artery,
loaded with Mexican pine. Rayonier-an international
forest-products
company-imports $1 million worth of timber each month
to
Oregon and California from New Zealand. In addition, it sends daily
truckloads
of uncovered Mexican green lumber up I-5 to company mills
in
Eugene and Prinesville, Oregon. Rayonier also transports Mexican
lumber
by sea to Coos Bay, Oregon.
The
company operates in 60 countries and owns hundreds of thousands of
acres
of timber in Washington as well as in the southeastern U.S. and
New
Zealand. Katie AmRhein is the manager of New Business Development
for
International Forest Products at Rayonier. In federal district
court
papers, she declared that her company "depends on imported green
logs,
lumber and wood chips as a substantial source of revenue."
Rayonier
expects its imports of green lumber from Mexico to more than
double
to $12 million in 1997. The firm says it is increasing its
imports
because environmental regulations are reducing the amount of
timber
available for commercial purposes in the U.S.
But at
the same time Rayonier is boosting timber imports, it is also
increasing
the number of potentially dangerous pests in this country.
An
October 1996 report from the USDA's Wood Import Pest Risk
Assessment
Team revealed a variety of pine-eating bugs in logs
imported
from southern Mexico by Rayonier.
Another
international timber giant, the Seattle-based Weyerhauser,
also
imports wood from abroad. David Coburn, the firm's communications
manager,
said the company imported a "partial shipload" of pine logs
from
New Zealand earlier this year, which were then turned into a
clear
plywood for certain customers. According to Coburn, Weyerhauser
adhered
to a USDA "fumigation schedule" in which the pine was first
debarked
before shipping, then fumigated. "We use methyl bromide in
New
Zealand before logs are shipped," he said.
Methyl
bromide-which the USDA requires as a fumigant for logs from
some
foreign nations-is one of the world's most deadly pesticides. It
has
been proven to be one of the most potent contributors to the
depletion
of the ozone layer. Methyl bromide is mostly used in
fumigating
tomatoes and strawberries in Florida. But it is
increasingly
being applied to logs, which is ironic given the
international,
U.S.-backed protocols aimed at reducing and eventually
eliminating
its use.
"Using
methyl bromide to treat imported lumber is a bad idea," says
John
Passacantando of Ozone Action, the Washington, D.C.-based public
interest
advocacy group. According to scientists, the fumigant barely
gets
beneath the bark. Passacantando cites a United Nations technical
options
group report that said when used on shipboard, most of the
methyl
bromide fumigant drifts off into the atmosphere, where it
contributes
to the ozone hole. The best way to get the bugs out is
with
heat, but that only works when the lumber has been milled.
Milling
ought to be done close to where the trees are cut down, not in
the
U.S.
In
addition, the existing USDA structures are inadequate to control
the
flow of new pests and diseases. "Windows of opportunity still
exist
for introduction of exotic pests and pathogens into North
America,
even with the current USDA APHIS regulations," Kathleen
Johnson
of the Oregon Department of Agriculture wrote recently.
"Sufficient
USDA APHIS inspectors are not available to inspect
containers
for imported, untreated woodpacking materials, which
potentially
may be infested."
Yet
another threat looms just over the horizon in the form of an
enormous
program involving hundreds of companies anxious to import
timber
from Siberia. In this vast territory-where timber is controlled
by the
Russian mafia and the logging done by prison gangs-the bugs are
rampant.
Observers from a European parliamentary team reported that up
to
"20,000 caterpillars can be found on one single Siberian tree, and
that
they can strip the tree of its bark in five minutes." Based
on this
fact, a USDA team concluded that "the risk of significant
impacts
to North American forests is great," running anywhere from
$24.9
million in damage in the best of circumstances to $58 billion in
a
worst-case scenario.
The
U.S. banned the import of raw Siberian logs in 1990, citing the
threat
to the Douglas fir by the Asian gypsy moth or the spruce bark
beetle.
But in 1994, the government took steps to undercut that ban
and
permit the import of raw Siberian logs under certain conditions.
To rid
the Siberian lumber of bugs, a new international combine now
proposes
to irradiate them.
West
Coast environmental groups, led by Californians for Alternatives
to
Toxics (CATS) and the Pacific Environment and Resources Center, are
going
into federal district court in San Francisco later this week to
try and
block the import of raw logs. "We have no other option but to
stop
imports and return to the old zero-tolerance policy," says Patty
Clary
of CATS. "The alternative means increased use of methyl bromide
and
other pesticides. Even these are no guarantee that pests won't
survive
to destroy millions of dollars of domestic timber resources."
The
timber-import business is driven in part by the Clinton
administration's
overall relaxation of federal regulation, along with
the
overall global drive for free trade. Timber is often given away in
Third
World countries in exchange for the building of roads and
infrastructure.
Sometimes the wood is purchased by international
combines
for as little as $5 per thousand board feet, and then
sold in
the U.S. for as much as $1000. Labor costs provide another
incentive
for timber companies to move to developing nations.
Loggers
and mill workers in the U.S. make between $15 and $25 per
hour,
while the same workers in Mexico and Chile earn less than $3
an
hour.
Additional
Reporting: Jason Barton
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