KY FY23 Firewood Outreach 5.0166.01 (Invasive Pest Outreach: Focus Firewood)

Invasive Pest Outreach: Focus Firewood (Farm Bill FY23 Goal 5) Abstract (500 words or less [372 words]) Firewood movement has proven to be a pathway for the movement of numerous invasive pests which are causing destruction in the states they’ve invaded. In Kentucky, emerald ash borer is known to be widely distributed throughout the state, walnut twig beetle and thousand cankers disease have been found in neighboring states and Asian longhorned beetle has been found in southern Ohio, approximately 10 miles from Kentucky’s border. Lymantrid moths are a threat since females can lay their egg masses on firewood. Spotted lanternfly is a pest of concern whose egg masses can be moved via firewood and it was found 4 miles from Kentucky’s border in Indiana in summer of 2021. Farm Bill funding in FY16 allowed Kentucky to join the national expansion of the Firewood Scout program which is a database of approved firewood vendors, giving concerned citizens the tools they need to responsibly purchase local or certified heat-treated wood and curb the movement of forest pests. This outreach project employs two strategies. First, personnel in our office, University of Kentucky Office of the State Entomologist (UK OSE) are implementing the Firewood Scout program in Kentucky. Since receiving funding to join the program in 2016, continuing through 2022, we are identifying firewood vendors throughout Kentucky and entering them into the system to build Kentucky’s directory. The vendors are continually updated upon request, from conducting online research, and from finding additional vendors while traveling throughout the state. The second strategy involves promoting Firewood Scout to the public. This promotion occurs at outreach events throughout the year, by advertising the program on our office Facebook page, creating advertisements for local magazines and newspapers, and developing specialized promotional items (stickers, first aid kits, tape measures, lip balm, ice scrapers, etc) to promote the website. Continued funding for this project would allow us to continue participating in the Firewood Scout program and educating the public about this pathway. We will add more vendors to the national directory, review the vendors in the directory, and promote the program to the public at outreach events. This will augment our broader outreach projects by focusing strictly on the firewood pathway by which invasive pests move and will give the public the tools they need to handle firewood responsibly.