Strengthen federal trade policy to keep out tree pests

An oak tree planted on the White House lawn recently went missing.

The tree was a gift to the United States from French President Emmanuel Macron to commemorate the American sacrifice in the Battle of Belleau Wood during World War I. It was planted by Macron and President Donald Trump — only to disappear into U.S. Department of Agriculture quarantine several days later. There it will be inspected for insects and diseases that could spread to other plants.

New Yorkers should take note of this incident. We are harder hit than any other state by imported forest pests. In addition to old nemeses like chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, and gypsy moth, new arrivals such as the hemlock woolly adelgid and emerald ash borer are poised to further decimate our forests and neighborhood trees.

Just this week the state Department of Environmental Conservation urged New Yorkers to be on the lookout for yet another new pest, the spotted lanternfly, which attacks grapes as well as apples and other trees.

The gift oak's disappearance parallels a past incident in botanical diplomacy gone afoul. In 1910, Tokyo's mayor offered the United States 2,000 cherry trees to beautify Washington, D.C. The trees came infested with insects and diseases, and the entire shipment was burned on the National Mall. Diplomatic repercussions were eventually smoothed over and the mayor of Tokyo sent a cleaner shipment of trees. Their descendants produce Washington's famous cherry blossoms.

This incident led to the passage of the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912, the first legal action taken in the United States to prevent the introduction of foreign plant pests. Iterations of that law continue to govern plant importation today.

Like the bonfire of cherry trees, the disappearing oak is a symbol of the danger in moving live plants and other pest-bearing cargo among continents. Each year, imported pests kill tens of millions of trees and cost the United States billions of dollars. Losses are borne largely by city governments for takedown and replacement of infested street trees, and by homeowners who pay to take down dead trees and lose property value when their cherished trees are gone.

Today, 2.5 billion to 3 billion live plants arrive at U.S. ports each year. Every shipment must pass through a USDA plant inspection station and bear a "pest-free" certification from the exporting country. In reality, only a small fraction of the plants are actually inspected, and many harmful insects and diseases cannot be detected visually anyway. As a result, we continue to import pests that put our native trees at great risk.

Tree pests also hitchhike in solid wood crates and pallets used in international shipping. Insects hide inside the wood and emerge when the shipment reaches its destination. This is how devastating pests like the emerald ash borer, which has killed more than 100 million ash trees in 32 states, infested the U.S. Switching to composite wood or other pest-free packaging for international trade could save millions of trees and billions of dollars in the United States annually.

New York cannot solve this problem alone because a pest imported anywhere in the country can eventually find its way here. Solutions lie in strengthening federal trade policy to keep pests out of international cargo. Rep. John Faso of New York's 19th district has proposed legislation that would strengthen plant import restrictions and require USDA to prepare a comprehensive report on the magnitude of the pest importation problem and solutions to deal with it. Our elected officials in both Washington and Albany should take a leadership role in forcing the federal government to take action to save our forest and city trees from imported pests.