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About the Authors:
Robert A. Haack
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Lansing, Michigan, United States of America
Kerry O. Britton
Affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Research and Development, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America
Eckehard G. Brockerhoff
Affiliations Scion (NZ Forest Research Institute), Christchurch, New Zealand, Better Border Biosecurity, New Zealand
Joseph F. Cavey
Affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine, Plant Health Programs, National Identification Services, Riverdale, Maryland, United States of America
Lynn J. Garrett
Affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine, Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
Mark Kimberley
Affiliation: Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute), Rotorua, New Zealand
Frank Lowenstein
Affiliation: New England Forestry Foundation, Littleton, Massachusetts, United States of America
Amelia Nuding
Current address: Western Resource Advocates, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America
Affiliation: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
Lars J. Olson
Affiliation: University of Maryland, Agricultural and Resource Economics, College Park, Maryland, United States of America
James Turner
Affiliation: AgResearch Ltd., Ruakura Research Centre, Hamilton, New Zealand
Kathryn N. Vasilaky
Affiliation: Earth Institute and International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
Introduction
International trade has been responsible for the inadvertent introduction of many exotic (nonnative) insect pests and plant pathogens, of which several have become highly invasive and caused serious environmental and economic impacts to multiple habitats worldwide [1]–[7]. In recent years, introductions of several particularly damaging wood-infesting insects and pathogens in the United States (US) have focused public and regulatory attention on the pathways that transport these pests [8]–[12].
Wood-feeding insects are commonly associated with wood packaging material (WPM), which includes items such as pallets, crates, and dunnage (wood used to brace cargo). Packaging for overseas shipments is commonly constructed from wood because it is relatively inexpensive, generally abundant, renewable, and easily manufactured and repaired. Unfortunately, wood used to construct WPM can be infested with a wide variety of bark and wood pests and thereby serve as...