Moving Ash Wood in Vermont: What Property Owners Should Verify

Because untreated ash material is the main way emerald ash borer reaches new areas. The insect flies only a limited distance on its own; a load of firewood in a truck moves it a hundred miles overnight. Every jump into a new region traces back to wood that travelled, which is why the guidance is about human transport rather than about the insect.

This is the exact case the guidance exists to address, and the default answer is no. Check Vermont's current position before moving any untreated ash. The safe alternatives are simple: burn the wood where it grew, or buy local heat-treated firewood at your destination. Heat treatment kills what is in the wood and is what makes commercial firewood safe to move.

Visible cleanliness proves nothing. Larvae live under the bark and in the outer wood, and a split round can look perfectly sound while carrying them. The signs — D-shaped exit holes, S-shaped galleries under the bark — are only visible if you go looking with the bark off, and their absence on one piece says nothing about the rest of the pile.

Chipping to a small size is generally accepted as destroying the material's usefulness to the insect, which is why chipping on site is the routine outcome for ash brush. The size matters. Large chunks are not chips. If you are relying on chipping to allow material to move, confirm the current guidance on what size is considered adequate.

Yes — that is the safe default and it is what to plan for. Leaving logs in rounds, stacking for firewood, or spreading chips on the same property moves the insect nowhere it is not already. It is also the cheapest outcome for you, because hauling is weight, truck time and a tip fee.

It does, which is the single most important thing to know about this topic. Quarantine boundaries and recommendations have shifted as the infestation has spread, and what was true two years ago may not be now. Check Vermont Invasives at the point you are making the decision rather than relying on remembered advice — including anything on this page.

Milled, dried lumber is a different case from round wood with bark on, because the bark and outer wood is where the insect lives. Confirm the current position for the specific material and the specific move, because the practical rules distinguish between firewood, logs with bark, chips and finished lumber rather than treating all ash the same.

Vermont Invasives is the state's public resource for emerald ash borer, including the current position on moving ash material. For a commercial quantity or a move across a state line, the state forestry or agriculture authority is the right contact. For a domestic load of firewood, the practical answer is almost always to not move it.

A competent one will, and it is worth asking explicitly. The question to put is what happens to ash material from your property — chipped on site, left on site, or hauled, and if hauled, where to. A company working in this region routinely handles ash and should have an immediate, specific answer.

Do not move it again, and use it where it now is rather than distributing it further. There is no useful purpose in returning it. If it is a large quantity in a place the insect has not been confirmed, telling the state forestry authority is genuinely helpful — early detection is what shapes the regional response.

Buying local is the recommendation precisely because it does not move material across regions. Buying heat-treated firewood is safer still, and it is the option to use if you are supplying a camp or a rental in a different area. What creates risk is carrying your own untreated wood a long distance, not the act of buying.

The concern is material with bark on it, so brush counts. In practice brush is chipped on site as a matter of course, which resolves it. Where it becomes a question is a pile of ash brush someone wants to take away whole for a bonfire elsewhere — that is a move of untreated ash material and it is worth checking rather than assuming.