The insects are winning ...

Parts of western Pennsylvania are being overrun with Emerald Ash Borer bugs. Apparently these things are not native to this area, kill ash trees dead, and spread like crazy.

There are a lot of ash trees in this part of the country. Should we get an infestation locally, there'd be 3 or 4 trees in my yard that would die.

Luckily, our state government cares. Unluckily, they're completely incompetent.

They've decided to issue a quarantine. This is good. It's currently illegal to transport wood around if you're in an infected area.

Unfortunately, you can't figure out what's going on with your area unless you're a flipping lawyer. The DCNR has this lovely page that tells you to beware and not break any rules. At the bottom of the page are links to the rules.

Now, I dare anyone to figure out what the blazes is going on with this stuff. Quite frankly, as a tree lover and a lover of wood fires, I feel obligated to do my part to ensure this nefarious insect doesn't get out of control, but I'm absolutely befuddled as to what (if anything) I should be doing to protect the trees around me.

We've got PDFs o' plenty from the various state agencies, but nobody in government seems to understand that the average person needs understandable instructions in order to comply with rules. How about a breakdown by county of what is Ok behavior and what isn't.

For crying out loud, this is the information age! These government web sites are useless if the people who put information on them are unable to organize the information in a way that others can understand.

You understand the reason for my frustration, right? It's because I want to do the right thing, but I'm unable to figure out what that is.

The insects are liable to win this battle if the people organizing the defense don't learn how to communicate effectively.