Burn it Where You Buy it
Burn It Where You Buy It is a slogan for the Firewood Task Force. This organization is educating the public on what happens when you move firewood from one location to another. Namely the transporting of invasive species. Non-native insects and tree disease have been identified as the cause for the decimation of California, Oregon, Washington, and now Western Canada’s forests.
Why is this a Problem for Campers?
Over one million Americans either travel or live in their RVs. Just last year in 2018, over 10.5 million households owned an RV. Millions of other Americans are choosing to do stacations, camping locally instead of taking road trips. If each of these campers or RVers moved firewood from one forest to another, the spread of invasive species can multiply exponentially.
What is at Stake?
Years of drought have left our forest trees dry and vulnerable to insects. A healthy tree has moisture and sap to help it to fend off invaders. In a wildfire, dry trees burn at a faster rate than healthy trees. We can look at the loss of 29,570 acres of Lassen National Forest in Northern California in 2020, in fact, in 2018 the entire city of Paradise burned to the ground. The Sierra Nevada forest near Yosemite in Central California, has miles of burned out forest land that is currently closed to the public for reforesting efforts, due to past wildfires. The San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear, California has a forest that has been severely damaged by the bark beetle. Nearly every forest in the warmer regions of California, Oregon, and Washington show the signs of the bark beetle.
Just one Invader
There are many different invasive species and plant diseases that are being moved throughout the Western American forests. The Bark Beetle, part of the family of beetles known as Scolytidae, is only one of them. This is an insect the size of a grain of rice. These beetles eat the bark or phloem, of a tree. This invasive insect has migrated from Central America, possible in crates of produce, to the Mid-West. The beetle burrows into the bark of a tree, sends out pheromones, and hundreds of other beetles join them to attack a tree. They lay thousands of eggs under the bark of the tree, and suck the moisture out of the tree, then move on to surrounding trees.
How are they moved?
A camper or homeowner, that unknowingly purchases firewood from an infected forest, and moves it to another location, is in fact complicit in the destruction of our forest resources. Imagine this, a camper brings a bundle or infected wood to a forest to have a campfire, they have one or two pieces of said wood left, they leave the wood behind, and the bark beetle finds a new forest to attack.
We need to learn to’ Burn It Where We Buy It’ so we can stop the spread of invasive species in our forest. Know what is at stake, possible massive, out of control wildfires. The loss of, not only human life, homes, and entire forests. All it takes is one invasive species. The public can help to curtail the spread of invasive species. Go to the U.S. Forest website nsa.gov/burnitwhereyoubuyit and learn more, or click the link below.
Click this link to view a video about Burn It Where You But It.
All of the articles on my blog come from being a camper from the time I was eight years old. I bought my first RV when I was 30, a tent trailer. I traded the tent trailer for a 26′ bumper pull trailer, then a 5th wheel, and I now have a 38′ Newmar Mountainare Class A motorhome. Once I retired from the Motion Picture Industry after a 39 year career, my wife and I sold the house, and moved into the motorhome. We have been traveling, managed an RV Park in Washington, worked at a lake in Southern California (I was the Maintenance Manager), and are planning our seventh season as the campground hosts at a campground in the Los Padres National Forest, in Southern California. We love the Full Time RV Lifestyle. See my course on https://howtofulltimerv.com
