West Virginia implements quarantine to protect black walnut timber resource from thousand cankers disease after fungus spreads from west of Mississippi River to parts of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia

Wendy Lisney

CHARLESTON, West Virginia , May 23, 2013 (press release) – The state of West Virginia has established an exterior quarantine effective May 20, 2013, to help protect the West Virginia walnut resource from Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD). TCD is a disease complex where the fungus is vectored by walnut twig beetles causing small cankers under the bark of walnut trees. The fungus is introduced when the beetles infest walnut trees. Trees are killed when cankers become numerous enough to merge together – there is no cure once a tree is infected.

According to the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) Commissioner Walt Helmick, “black walnut is a valuable timber and nut resource in West Virginia and the quarantine is a step in the right direction toward slowing TCD entrance into our state.” This is important because TCD no longer occurs just west of the Mississippi River. It can be found in parts of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia.

“Simply put, the exterior quarantine means no plants and plant parts of walnut from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington and any portions or areas of states where TCD has been found can be brought into or through West Virginia,” said Plant Industries Division Director Sherrie Hutchinson. The quarantine also includes the TCD fungus, the walnut twig beetle in any life stage and any hardwood firewood from TCD infected areas.

Exclusions to the quarantine include nuts, nut meats, hulls, processed lumber and finished wood products without bark such as furniture, instruments and gun stocks Processed lumber must be 100% bark-free and kiln-dried with squared edges.

For more information on TCD, visit www.thousandcankers.com or contact the WVDA Plant Industries Division at 304-558-2212.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.

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