Moving firewood in California: the emerald ash borer exterior quarantine and the goldspotted oak borer

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. California's written firewood rule is about wood coming in from outside the state. Inside the state the department's Firewood Task Force gives advice and names pests, and its pest rating profile for one oak beetle records how that beetle is thought to have arrived.

3 CCR section 3288: emerald ash borer exterior quarantine

Title 3 of the California Code of Regulations, section 3288, is titled "Emerald Ash Borer Exterior Quarantine". The text on the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) site sets out the quarantine as follows.

Regulated area: the entire state where an infestation is present, when detailed information on the pest's distribution within that state is lacking. Where survey data allows, it is the counties in which the infestation is documented. The text says the department updates the maps of infested areas as new information arrives and at least once a month.
Articles covered: any living life stage of the beetle, and firewood of ash (Fraxinus) trees and mixed firewood containing hardwood (non-coniferous) species from an infested area. It also covers ash nursery stock and other ash tree material, including green lumber and other woody material living, dead, cut or fallen, with logs, stumps, roots, branches, and composted and uncomposted chips named.
Other articles: an article not listed becomes regulated if a California State Plant Quarantine Officer decides it presents a risk and tells the person holding it. The text lists whether the article came from an infested area, and whether it was exposed outdoors from May 1 through August 31 or when the air temperature is 40 degrees F or higher, among the factors.
Restriction: covered articles from the quarantined area are prohibited entry into California.

Exceptions in the text

The section lists three exceptions to the entry ban. The first is for articles that are free of the beetle on inspection and that a State Plant Quarantine Officer decides were grown, produced, manufactured or stored in a way that prevents the risk of spreading it. The second is for articles moved by the United States Department of Agriculture for experimental or scientific purposes. The third is for articles that start outside the quarantined area and pass through it, with three conditions:

the points of origin and destination are shown on a waybill that travels with the article;
from May 1 through August 31, or when the air temperature is 40 degrees F or higher, the article moves in an enclosed vehicle or is completely covered;
the article has not been combined with other articles so that it loses its identity as the regulated commodity.

What the Firewood Task Force says inside California

The California Firewood Task Force, hosted on a CDFA site, publishes a frequently asked questions page. It lists the pests it names as carried by firewood in California: emerald ash borer, goldspotted oak borer, Sirex woodwasp, spongy moth (written there as gypsy moth), Asian longhorned beetle and sudden oak death. It says the rule of thumb is that the shorter the distance firewood moves, the better, and that wood with no visible signs of insects or disease should not be assumed safe, because tiny eggs or fungus spores can escape experts.

The page says that firewood, brush and debris from a property pose no threat if not moved very far, and that composting, chipping, burning or taking it to a local disposal facility are acceptable ways of dealing with wood waste. It adds a note to check burning restrictions first. It describes rules in some Midwest and East Coast states and points to CDFA for best management practices or rules relating to firewood. On the page read, the task force sets out advice and does not state a rule on moving firewood inside California.

Goldspotted oak borer

CDFA's pest rating profile for the goldspotted oak borer records the department's rating as B as of September 30, 2022, replacing an earlier Q rating. It says the beetle has been known in California since 2004 and is present in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. It says the beetle is thought to have reached California from Arizona through the movement of firewood, because the stretch of unsuitable habitat between San Diego County and southeastern Arizona favours that explanation over natural spread. Flight mill tests gave an average flight distance of approximately 790 metres in 24 hours, which the profile cites as support for human-aided long-distance spread.

The profile says larvae feed under the bark and that branch dieback and tree death follow after three to five years, or sooner in weakened trees. It says infestation rates have exceeded 90% in some San Diego County areas, with mortality reaching 45%. In its scoring of dispersal, it notes that dead oak branches and trunks are likely to be collected and moved as firewood. The profile does not describe a quarantine on moving oak firewood within California.

Where California sits in the table

The table on the moving wood and firewood page gives the one-line version for every state. California's written rule is the entry quarantine in section 3288, the task force advice covers movement inside the state, and the goldspotted oak borer profile records a rating, not a movement rule.