With the summer camping season underway, the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources reminds campers to buy firewood where they burn it to minimize the movement of emerald ash borer and other pests.
Ash is a popular firewood in South Dakota. If an ash tree is infested before it was cut, it may still contain EAB insect larvae that could emerge in the summer and infect new trees.
“We all need to work together to slow the spread of emerald ash borer,” said DANR Secretary Hunter Roberts. “Firewood is the most common way emerald ash borer is spread to new locations. Please, don’t move firewood, buy it where you burn it!”
EAB has been found in Minnehaha, Lincoln, and Union counties. To help slow the spread, DANR established a year-round quarantine in those counties, and neighboring Turner County. The quarantine prohibits movement of ash products and all hardwood firewood out of the quarantined counties. DANR also established an external embargo on regulated ash products and untreated firewood entering South Dakota from all states east of South Dakota’s eastern border and any county where EAB is known to exist in other states.
For more information about EAB in South Dakota or to report a suspected sighting please visit https://
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