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FRANKFORT,
Ky. — Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer
and a California nursery group have reached a legal
settlement that prohibits the Kentucky Department of
Agriculture from enforcing a quarantine on all plant
material from California. The quarantine was enacted
in March to prevent Sudden Oak Death from entering the
Commonwealth.
The
Department will comply with less stringent federal standards
and will continue to work with the University of Kentucky
on surveillance for Sudden Oak Death. The KDA will continue
to urge the United States Department of Agriculture
to tighten restrictions on movement of California plants.
“Sudden
Oak Death threatens Kentucky's timber and nursery industries,
but it also threatens the beauty, the environmental
stability and the wildlife population of Kentucky's
vast forests,” Commissioner Farmer said. “My childhood
home is in the mountain forests of eastern Kentucky,
so this issue is important to me.”
Sudden
Oak Death has been blamed for killing tens of thousands
of oaks in California since its discovery there in 1995.
Oak accounts for 50 to 60 percent of all Kentucky timber
revenue, according to the state Division of Forestry.
White oak and red oak are two of the top three species
produced in the state. Kentucky's forest industries
employ 30,000 people.
The
California Association of Nursery and Garden Centers
sued Commissioner Farmer; M. Scott Smith, dean of the
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, and Kentucky
state entomologist John J. Obrycki, claiming the Kentucky
quarantine violated the Federal Plant Protection Act.
The consent order, which was filed in U.S. District
Court in Frankfort, Ky., imposes a permanent injunction
prohibiting Kentucky from enforcing its quarantine and
any state laws that are pre-empted by federal law.
“We
are disappointed that we were forced to take this action,
but the legal action against Kentucky by large California
nursery interests left us no choice,” Commissioner Farmer
said. “We do not believe the USDA restrictions are sufficient
to prevent the spread of Sudden Oak Death. The federal
restrictions apply only to known host and associated
host plants from California. New hosts are being identified
all the time. There were only three known hosts and
associated hosts in 2000; now there are 60. So we would
prefer to ban all California plants while USDA is still
adding names to the host list.”
Commissioner
Farmer suggested that one way to prevent an invasion
of Sudden Oak Death in Kentucky is to buy Kentucky Proud
nursery and greenhouse products.
“The Kentucky Proud symbol tells you that plant has
its roots in Kentucky soil,” Commissioner Farmer said.
“When you buy Kentucky Proud, you're buying the freshest,
safest products on the market, and you're helping a
fellow Kentuckian make a living.”
USDA's
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued
a Federal Quarantine in April regulating interstate
movement of known hosts and associated hosts of the
Sudden Oak Death pathogen after it was found in camellias
and traced back to a large-scale nursery outside a quarantine
area in northern California.
The
California Oak Mortality Task Force said the Sudden
Oak Death pathogen has been detected on 140 sites in
19 states. No cases of Sudden Oak Death have been confirmed
in Kentucky.
Sudden
Oak Death causes branch and twig dieback in conifers
and several shrubs as well as leaf blight in mountain
laurel, camellia, and other species. In California,
it negatively affects ecosystem functions, increases
fire and safety hazards, and reduces property values
in developed areas, according to the National Invasive
Species Council, which designated Sudden Oak Death as
its Invasive Species of the Month for July. The National
Invasive Species Council is co-chaired by the secretaries
of Agriculture, Interior and Commerce, and consists
of the heads of several other federal agencies.
APHIS
has established a toll-free Sudden Oak Death hotline,
1-888-703-4457. The hotline is staffed Monday through
Friday from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Eastern time.
For
more information about Sudden Oak Death, go to www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/sod/sod.html.
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