Canadian Forest Service Publications

Year: 2010

Available from: Pacific Forestry Centre

Catalog ID: 32285

Language: English

CFS Availability: PDF (request by e-mail)

Abstract

The transport of adventive arthropods associated with rapidly expanding global trade has led to an ever increasing list of quarantine pests establishing beyond their native ranges. A significant number of these taxa have become serious forest pests, and some are directly threatening the viability of native tree species across their introduced ranges. The global movement and establishment of bark- and wood-borers such as Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), Tetropium fuscum (F.) and Tomicus piniperda (L.) in multiple international jurisdictions led to the recognition of the importance of solid wood packing (e.g. crating, pallets) as an introduction pathway. Regulatory inspections and rearing studies targeting wood packing pathways have identified both the diversity of taxa and the potential magnitude of pest movements associated with this route. Concurrently, surveillance programmes initiated to detect invasive bark- and wood-borers in Canada and the United States have identified previously undetected establishment of multiple species of ambrosia- and bark-beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae), and woodborers (Cerambycidae) across North America. This paper reviews the lines of evidence that were used to support the development of the first pathway-based international standard for phytosanitary measures (ISPM), that for wood packing (ISPM 15). This standard requires mandatory treatment of wood used as dunnage, packaging, crating or pallets in international trade in order to mitigate populations of bark- and wood-borers potentially present in the raw wood.