Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Chicago Tribune

DUPAGE COUNTY -- In response to the threat posed by the emerald ash borer, a tree-destroying beetle, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is banning people from bringing their own firewood to its forest preserves.

Campers at Warrenville's Blackwell Forest Preserve will be required to buy firewood from the campground office for $3 a bundle, the district has announced. Groups using the district's seven youth-group campgrounds or any of its fire pits or fireplaces also must use only the firewood provided with the sites.

The bans may be inconvenient to some, but they are necessary to protect DuPage trees, said Mike Palazzetti, the district's director of land management. "Firewood is the No. 1 way that the emerald ash borer is transmitted from site to site," he said.

The small, green non-native beetle that has killed more than 14 million ash trees in the Midwest in the last four years has been discovered in Kane County west of St. Charles.