PDA Repeals Thousand Canker Disease in Walnut Quarantine

Harrisburg – Eleven years after imposing a quarantine on the movement of black walnut wood from affected Pennsylvania counties due to thousand cankers disease (TCD), The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) repealed its quarantine order on Saturday January 15, 2022.

Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Lancaster Counties had been included in the quarantine area.

The quarantine had also prohibited the shipment of black walnut into Pennsylvania from other states known to have infected black walnut trees, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Washington.

TCD is caused by the fungus Geosmithia morbida and spread by the walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis. The quarantine order is being repealed due to recent studies which have shown the fungus and the beetle spreading it to be endemic to the eastern United States and that the mortality observed in affected black walnut trees may have been due to other factors such as drought.

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