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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Canada's regulatory agency responsible for protecting plant health, has announced a consultation period on proposed risk management measures for red pine scale (Matsucoccus matsumurae). The consultation period closes on October 23. Depending on the outcome of the process, these measures could impact shipments of red pine logs into Canada.
The risk management document outlines the options the CFIA is considering and provides background information on the insect and the rationale for considering risk reduction. In Maine, we are quite familiar with the rationale: red pine scale is a devastating invasive insect. Its ravages are in full view in Downeast Maine and York County in both planted and natural-origin red pine. The green foliage of affected trees rapidly progresses to a brick-red color before being shed completely, leaving a forest of gray sticks. This can happen to individual trees and even whole stands in the matter of just a few years. Red pine in our forests is in serious peril.
Roadside trees impacted by red pine scale along Beddington Rd in Deblois have deteriorated quickly over the past few years. Photo credit: Google Street View
Under the preferred CFIA regulatory option, there would be two potential mechanisms to export red pine logs to Canadian receivers. Under certain circumstances, a receiver may become certified as an “approved facility”. Loads of logs would be able to be exported under a permit to that receiver, following conditions in the facilities agreement with CFIA. In other situations, a receiver may not be approved, in which case each load of red pine logs with bark would need to have a phytosanitary certificate issued by a regulatory agency in the US. Logs from counties without confirmed red pine scale would require the certificate to include a declaration of origin. Logs from counties with red pine scale would likely not be exported to Canada under this circumstance, as they would require heat treatment or fumigation certified by the regulatory authority in Maine.
Our message to those who market red pine to Canada is to reach out to your business partners in Canada to better understand how this proposal may impact you. If you want to provide input during the CFIA consultation process, instructions are available on their website.
Based on estimates of basal area of trees over 1" diameter on forest land from our National Forest Inventory plot network, red pine comprises less than 1 percent of Maine Forests.
This is a difficult question to answer with our available data. Wood processor reports combine red and white pine volumes due to the low volume of red pine. Our recent conversations with some log sellers suggest that red pine markets are tough, but domestic opportunities to market logs have improved recently, so the share of harvested volume exported is lower than in the past. However, there are still some red pine log exports to Canada, and they remain important components of the limited market.
An up-to-date, interactive map of towns with confirmed red pine scale infestations is available on our invasive species dashboard. Currently, red pine scale is confirmed in Hancock, Washington and York Counties. Towns bordering Cumberland, Oxford and Penobscot Counties are among the locations with confirmed infestations. We suspect that red pine scale is elsewhere and will eventually be detected and cause damage in every Maine county. Red pine health in areas with colder winters will benefit from slower invasion by red pine scale and slower development of damaging populations of the insect.
 Map of Maine towns with confirmed populations of red pine scale.
If you suspect you have found new areas with red pine scale damage, let us know. Knowing where the scale occurs helps managers plan timely harvests.
To reduce the risk of spreading red pine scale, conduct harvests in winter, when scales are firmly attached to trees. If you process red pine, complete processing before spring. If you are doing tree work in red pine, try to conduct it in the winter. If you cannot, then leave the material on-site where possible and in other cases, try to expedite the processing of material in areas removed from unaffected red pine.
Individuals of this species are quite small, so diagnosis typically relies on tree symptoms. However, scales do produce a cottony white substance which can be seen by the naked eye. It can be found on the tips of branches, amongst bark flakes and at the base of needle clusters. More information can be found on the MFS Forest Health & Monitoring website.
 Red pine scale can take many sizes and shapes depending on its life stage, though the presence of cottony white “flocculence” is the most useful sign for detection. From left: white flocculence, yellow crawlers, settled immature scale, adult female. Photo credits: Kanoti & LeMay Maine Forest Service
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