Stick to the local logs

AN INCH-LONG BEETLE that came to the United States in wood crates and pallets from China is threatening to destroy many species of hardwood trees. In Worcester, state and federal officials have made plans to cut down the more than 1,000 trees infested with Asian longhorned beetles in December. To keep the beetles from spreading into other areas, residents of Worcester and surrounding towns should be careful not to bring firewood from their homes to their ski houses or vacation homes elsewhere in the Northeast.

The fear is that the beetles could hitchhike a ride to new locales, much as they did from China before shippers there and elsewhere were required to fumigate their crates and pallets. Already outbreaks of the beetles have occurred in Chicago and in New York and New Jersey. To keep the Worcester beetles from spreading further, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation has placed a quarantine on the shipment of wood, including firewood, out of a 62-square-mile area in and around the city.

Despite the quarantine, there is concern that individuals will inadvertently carry the beetles in auto trunks full of firewood for second homes in the Berkshires or northern New England. The wood could come from firewood purchases before the quarantine, or from fallen branches that homeowners might have cut up on their own. The beetles could have a particularly devastating effect on the region's two national forests. They prefer maples, ash, and birch.

As Worcester grapples with the loss of many of its shade trees, the least second-home owners can do is leave their wood at home and buy the logs at stores in all the winter vacation areas. It is a small price to save a priceless resource.