Before you begin to gather and transport firewood in Illinois for that beautiful campfire you are preparing for, there are a few things you need to know.  Due to the infestation of Emerald Ash Borer, or EAB, in the State of Illinois, there are state and federal government regulations that must be adhered to when you purchase, cut down, or even gather what appears to be “just dead” wood.  More importantly, you need to be aware of the devastating affect a simple plan of a campfire can have on the Illinois Landscape when you transport just one small piece of infested wood to a different location.

The entire State of Illinois has been federally regulated by placing all ash products under quarantine.  This includes ash nursery stock, green lumber, logs, stumps, roots, branches and non-composited wood chips.  Because distinguishing the hardwood firewood type is nearly impossible by sight – all hardwood firewood (oak, maple, hickory, and ash) are regulated under the quarantine.

What this means for firewood distributors and producers is they are not allowed to move any hardwood firewood out of the State of Illinois.  (There are very stringent regulations and precautions that must be followed and inspection made before migration out of State will even be considered permissible.) 

Now, here is where the tricky part of the quarantine comes in, more so for those of us who just want to build a simple fire to relax around on a cool summer night.   The USDA allows firewood that originated in Illinois to move freely within Illinois State lines.  However, The Illinois Department of Agriculture has an interior quarantine in place that states firewood that originated in the interior quarantine (a known infested area) must not leave the interior quarantine.  In other words, the IDA urges (and enforces) confirmed infested areas to burn ash firewood at origin site and transporting firewood off site should be kept to an almost non-existent minimal.  Keep in mind, there are those stringent regulations by the IDA for migrating, that also apply within the interior boundaries, mentioned above.   The ultimate goal is to keep all firewood local.  Simply stated, firewood that is produced, distributed, sold, bought, gathered, etc. locally should be burned locally.  No matter where you camp in the State of Illinois, you will be asked to burn all of your firewood before leaving, and you will not be permitted to transport left over wood home with you.  “No log shall be left unburned.”

Educating the citizens of Illinois of the risks associated with movement of firewood and other products is an ultimate goal that needs to be met, especially in these critical times where more and more ash trees are dying and becoming readily available as firewood.  So think before you pick up that dead branch, or buy your next bushel of firewood and start traveling with it.   Help preserve the Illinois Landscape by knowing the boundaries of the quarantines, and better yet, know you could be hauling a lot more than just wood.

If you have any questions, please contact one of our tree experts who specialize in the fight against Emerald Ash Borer and the preservation of our landscape.  Let us inspect before you infest!

“The city of Lake Forest estimates they’re going to lose as many as 100,000 trees,” says Bob Kinnucan, of Kinnucan Tree Experts and Landscape Company. “In metropolitan Chicago, tree losses will be in the millions. This is probably the biggest environmental impact that’s going to hit the Midwest in years.”

The past four years, we’ve begun to see the ash tree population in our community fall prey to the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a beetle that burrows into ash trees during its larval stage and feeds off of the tree’s vascular system. The ash can then no longer transport the water and nutrients it needs to thrive and the tree goes into decline.

Presumed to have arrived from Asia in hard wood packing materials, the EAB decimated the ash tree population in southeastern Michigan, where it was first discovered in America, with tree losses in the tens of millions. Now, it’s spread its way through the Midwest and eastern Canada. In an area where approximately 20 percent of our tree population is made up of ash trees, the potential for change to our landscape is large. Not good news for Lake Bluff and Lake Forest, both towns that proudly wear the banner “Tree City USA.”

“For many developers, ashes where the tree of choice because they were cheap to buy and they adapt readily to our soil” says Bob. “It’s a quick growing tree and there were hardly any problems with insects or disease until this happened. The good news is you can treat a tree that’s infected. If you have a tree on your property that has the insect in it and we inoculate that tree, there’s a very high probability we can eradicate the insect and the tree will live on and be healthy.”

An early-infected tree may not look as if there ‘s anything wrong with it. By the time a noticeable change takes place, it’s often too late to save at least a significant portion of the exiting tree. The certified arborists at Kinnucan can tell if nay of the ash trees on your property are infected with the EAB larva. If they are, they inject a chemical called TREE-age directly into the gree around its circumference, targeting the EAB. Tree-age has a 90 percent success rate.

For homeowners, the loss of an ash tree population means more than a perceptible change to a property’s landscape. The removal of dead trees is a costly business. From cutting down, to stump removal, to replanting, it can easily cost thousands of dollars. Not to mention the limited availability of replacement trees in a recession-recovering marketplace or the impact on property value.
Robert has seen our community through similar outbreaks of tree targeting insects and disease over his more than 40 years in business. Whether it was the Dutch Elm Disease epidemic or Asian Longhorned Beetle, Kinnucan and his team of experts have been on call to preserve the natural landscape we value so much. Through he founded the company to specialize in tree trimming and tree removal, over the years the requests of his valued client base saw him offering more and more services until he saw his company become an all-in-one landscape provider.

“For the last 25 years, we’ve been a single source for landscape maintenance, design, installation, tree and plant healthcare – disease diagnosis and treatment, insect identification and control – lawn, tree, and shrub fertilization,” he says. “We take care of properties in totality. If someone wants hard surface paving done, we can do that. Just about whatever it is on the outside of the property.

For more information on Kinnucan Tree Experts and Landscape Company call 847-234-5327 or visit them online at kinnucan.com.