1000 canker disease

[Kansas]

I had a visit from the state forester (Larry Biles) along with Bob Atchison of the Kansas Forest Service this afternoon. They were on their way back from a meeting with regional  state agriculture officials about pests and diseases in timber. Seems Kansas is viewed as a gateway to the rest of the country to the east concerning 1000 canker disease in walnut. It has made it into Colorado. They are talking about restrictions and heat treating or other measures that may eventually occur in the movement of walnut logs out of Kansas. Being most all walnut logged in Kansas goes east, or overseas, this could be a huge issue. I first heard of this disease only a few months ago. A quick Google doesn't show it any farther east than Colorado Springs so far. Walnut log production is the best thing Kansas has going for it when it comes to the timber industry. Just how bad does this look?

[estiers]

IThey are talking about restrictions and heat treating or other measures that may eventually occur in the movement of walnut logs out of Kansas.

I think they are actually looking at requiring heat treatment or other things to bring walnut INTO Kansas, not to move them out.  These measure would be in place to protect the Kansas walnut industry.  As with any regulation though, it will only be as good as its enforcement.  As for how it looks, if thousand canker disease arrives in Kansas it looks pretty bad for the walnut industry with trees dying within years of infection, and no real good survey method.

[SPIKER]

After spending 4+ years living in Kansas, "Timber" and "Kansas" just dont seem to go together ;)

Like we have been dealing back east for years with different tree problems, it is something that is sooner or later going to be a global issue, movement of any type of raw wood materials I think will eventually become regulated to prevent/slow bug and virus/disease from spreading...


Mark

[Kansas]

I think they are actually looking at requiring heat treatment or other things to bring walnut INTO Kansas, not to move them out.  These measure would be in place to protect the Kansas walnut industry.

Estiers, do walnut logs find their way to Kansas from the affected areas? I didn't realize Colorado even had a walnut industry. Or are you talking about firewood or coming from someplace else?

Spiker, what are the choices on treating logs for shipment? They keep threatening to do away with methyl bromide, and I can't see how you could effectively treat whole logs with heat treatment. I guess you could, but that would be a long slow process to get the whole log up to temperature, and I don't know what that would do to the quality of logs, especially veneer, if you were to do it.
I guess I'm trying to look ahead in 5-10 years at what the industry will look like around here. If logs will have to be processed locally into lumber and/or veneer rather than shipping the logs out.

[LeeB]

Every where else in the world that ships out wood does it in processed lumber to up the money intake. Why shouldn't we?

[Ironwood]

YIKES.

Ironwood

[estiers]

.

Estiers, do walnut logs find their way to Kansas from the affected areas? I didn't realize Colorado even had a walnut industry. Or are you talking about firewood or coming from someplace else?

You are right, black walnut is not native to CO.  However, as we all know, everyone with a black walnut in their yard thinks it is worth a fortune, so movement from there does become an issue in terms of that and firewood.

[letemgrow]

Where did this canker come from??  My guess would be another non-native disease brought from somewhere else just like the blight on American Chestnut.   >:(


It may be a long shot, but I think a couple billboard signs may spark enough interest and get the word out in that area so hopefully it can be contained and maybe even cut down all the walnuts out there now to keep it from spreading anywhere else and replace them with natives to that region. 

[estiers]

Where did this canker come from??  My guess would be another non-native disease brought from somewhere else just like the blight on American Chestnut.   >:(


It may be a long shot, but I think a couple billboard signs may spark enough interest and get the word out in that area so hopefully it can be contained and maybe even cut down all the walnuts out there now to keep it from spreading anywhere else and replace them with natives to that region. 

Actually, this insect is native to the US.  The disease has never been identified before now, probably because the typical host trees are resistant to it.  Normal distribution are in the desert southwest with the primary host being Arizona walnut (Juglans major).  Black walnut are not native to the Front Range of Colorado, so they technically are the "invaders" here. 

As for cutting all of the walnuts down...  well, from what I've seen people seem to be pretty attached to their walnuts.  And just cutting them down is not going to mitigate the fact that thousands of insects are still living in the trunk of the tree.

[letemgrow]

I hope it stays that way so the walnuts in the native range are fine. 

[Ron Scott]

THOUSAND CANKERS DISEASE

This disease threatens black walnut and has a resource website that was developed in partnership by the Forest Service, Purdue University, and the Walnut Council. 

www.thousandcankers.com

[metalspinner]

Thanks for the link, Ron.

A friend and I were just discussing this yesterday about moving green lumber from my sawyer's mill to my house.  He lives in an adjacent county.

Here is a link from your link above...

http://www.tn.gov/agriculture/publications/regulatory/TCD_regs_PlainLanguage.pdf

It looks like I am good to go for transporting either logs or lumber to and from his place to mine.

However, if an item is manufactured from the lumber and shipped outside of the quarantined counties it needs to be from kiln dryed wood and cambium/bark free.

Each state has outlined it's quarentine info.

[red]

any new info ?