The May/June 2009 issue of Fine Woodworking posted the following letter:
I a a professor of entomology at Colorado State University, where we have discovered a new insect-carried fungus called Thousand Cankers, which poses an extreme threat to black walnut in North America. Currently, we think the disease is restricted to the western US, where it looks like it will kill all black walnuts within a decade or so; in some areas, most of the trees have already died.
It would be devastating if someone were to move (ship) a walnut log that contains walnut-twig beetles into areas where black walnut is native (much of the eastern half of the US).
No walnut logs with bark intact should be moved eastward. Kiln-dried boards are thought to be safe, howeer. For more information go to http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/0813_alert.pdfhttp://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/0812_alert.pdf
--- Whitney Cranshaw, CSU
I a a professor of entomology at Colorado State University, where we have discovered a new insect-carried fungus called Thousand Cankers, which poses an extreme threat to black walnut in North America. Currently, we think the disease is restricted to the western US, where it looks like it will kill all black walnuts within a decade or so; in some areas, most of the trees have already died.
It would be devastating if someone were to move (ship) a walnut log that contains walnut-twig beetles into areas where black walnut is native (much of the eastern half of the US).
No walnut logs with bark intact should be moved eastward. Kiln-dried boards are thought to be safe, howeer. For more information go to http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/0813_alert.pdfhttp://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/0812_alert.pdf
--- Whitney Cranshaw, CSU