APHIS STUDIES IMPACT OF FUTURE WOOD-PACKING RULES

APHIS STUDIES IMPACT OF FUTURE WOOD-PACKING RULES    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will conduct an “environmental impact” study of regulations that it’s considering for untreated wood-packaging materials.
   APHIS said its regulations for wood-packaging materials, such as crates, dunnage, spools, pallets and packing blocks, in addition to logs and lumber, are needed to prevent the spread of destructive wood-eating pests.
   The agency must consider the effects of its proposed actions and alternatives under the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act.
   Introductions of wood-pests, such as the Asian long horned beetle, pine shoot beetle, and most recently the emerald ash borer, have been linked to imported untreated wood-packaging materials. “These and other plant pests that could be carried by imported WPM (wood-packaging materials) pose a threat to U.S. agriculture and to natural, cultivated and urban forests,” APHIS said.
   In 1998, APHIS imposed treatment regulations for cargo wood-packaging materials from China. “This action has decreased interceptions of pests associated with WPM from China,” the agency said.
   Now APHIS is considering similar regulations for wood-packaging materials from all countries. This would require wood-packaging materials to be heat treated, fumigated or treated with preservatives prior to arrival in the United States, or the agency could require alternative packaging such as metal, rubber or fiberglass.
   In addition, APHIS must adopt a comprehensive risk reduction program and consider in its future rulemaking newly released international guidelines for treating wood-packaging materials set by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s International Plant Protection Convention.
   APHIS will take comments from the industry through Sept. 13. The agency will also hold public meetings about its wood-packaging analysis in Washington on Sept. 3 and in Long Beach, Calif., on Sept. 5.