Exports of Canadian firewood to the U.S. will require heat-treating from now on, Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials have warned woodlot owners and other firewood shippers.
In a notice on Monday, CFIA said it’s had word from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that it will require all firewood of hardwood (non-coniferous) species from Canada to be heat-treated to a minimum wood core temperature of 71.1°C for a minimum of 75 minutes.
All commercial shipments of firewood of hardwood species from all Canadian sources must now thus be accompanied by a heat treatment certificate issued by the facility responsible for the heat treatment. A phytosanitary certificate won’t be required, APHIS told CFIA.
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Any non-commercial shipment must be accompanied by a treatment certificate or an attached commercial treatment label (for instance, a heat treatment (HT) label on the outside of the firewood bundle).
APHIS’s effective date for the new rules on both commercial and non-commercial shipments was given as Oct. 17, CFIA said.
Canada bans firewood imports from all countries besides the U.S. and either bans or restricts imports from several parts of the U.S.
Canadian border officials regulate a number of firewood-related quarantine pests such as the brown spruce longhorn beetle, Dutch elm disease, the European larch canker, gypsy moth, pine shoot beetle, Asian long-horned beetle and emerald ash borer.
