To: Accredited Wood Packaging Material Agencies

From: John McDaniel

Subject: Implementation of Bark Requirement of ISPM 15 The revised ISPM 15 (2009) under Annex 1 requires that wood used to manufacture ISPM 15 compliant WPM must be made from debarked wood. The specific language is shown below for your reference:

“Use of debarked wood

Irrespective of the type of treatment applied, wood packaging material must be made of debarked wood. For this standard, any number of visually separate and clearly distinct small pieces of bark may remain if they are: – less than 3 cm in width (regardless of the length) or – greater than 3 cm in width, with the total surface area of an individual piece of bark less than 50 square cm.” Since the “debarked wood” requirement has not been in previous versions of the standard, an implementation procedure needs to be established. ALSC will immediately begin informing WPM facilities and the supervising agency of any ISPM 15 marked WPM that is observed in inventory during its inspections. This procedure will remain in effect until June 1, 2009, after that time the WPM facilities will be requested to hold for agency review any ISPM 15 marked WPM that is found to exceed the specifications for “debarked wood” as shown above.