South Carolina ash trees in jeopardy!

Officials need the public’s help to limit the movement of firewood as a way to help combat the spread of an insect pest that inhabits and destroys native ash trees.  The Department of Plant Industry at Clemson University will hold a public hearing regarding an emergency statewide quarantine of wood and wood products affected by the Emerald Ash Borer.  That hearing will be 10 o’clock Friday morning, September 29 at the Center for Applied Technology, 511 Westinghouse Road, Pendleton.  The intended quarantine would cover all 46 counties.  The plan is to work with other states and the U-S Department of Agriculture to regulate the movement of wood that serves as hosts to the small, metallic green, wood-boring beetle.  “Essentially, we’re asking that people ‘burn it where you buy it’ when making campfire,” said Steven Long, assistant director of the department, a state agency based in Clemson’s Public Service and Agricultures unit.  USDA detection traps this month revealed the insect in Oconee, Greenville, and Spartanburg counties.