With winter soon upon us, Ginger Lawrence, public relations chair of the Beacon Hill Garden Club, wants to remind neighbors that firewood can carry insects and diseases that kill trees.
While restrictions are now in place in other states, including New York, which forbids the transport of firewood from more than 50 miles away from where it is harvested (unless it has been kiln-dried) – and Maine, which does not allow the importation of firewood, Massachusetts has only an Asian-Longhorn-Beetle quarantine that prohibits the movement of wood from insect-infested areas.
“Bringing firewood home from New Hampshire, Vermont or Maine is a bad practice,” Lawrence said, “Residents should always ask the men with trucks on Charles Street for a guarantee that the firewood they are purchasing is kiln-dried.”