MAINE PUBLIC • August 22, 2023
State officials are considering proposals to expand several quarantine zones for firewood and other tree parts to slow the spread of three invasive species that kill trees. York and Cumberland counties as well as parts of Oxford and Aroostook counties have been under quarantine for several years to prevent further spread of emerald ash borers. The small beetles burrow under ash bark and eventually kill the trees, which occupy important ecological, cultural and economic niches in Maine. But now the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry wants to expand that quarantine to all of Androscoggin, Knox, Lincoln and Waldo counties as well as parts of Penobscot, Franklin, Somerset and Piscataquis counties.