Oregon has started the most rigorous plant-inspection program in the nation to stop a fungus that threatens the state’s $778 million nursery industry.
State agriculture officials adopted an emergency rule Wednesday requiring all growers and dealers selling plants susceptible to Phytophthora ramorum, the fungus that causes sudden oak death, to have their plants tested and certified annually as free of the disease. Without the inspection and clean bills of health, the plants can’t be sold.
Known for harming certain oak-tree species, the fungal disease also can infect about 60 varieties of trees and shrubs. That includes landscaping plants valuable to Oregon’s nursery industry, such as rhododendrons and many types of camellias.
“We want the rest of the U.S. and export markets to understand that our nursery industry is not infested with sudden oak death and that any new introduction of the disease will be detected early and quickly eradicated,” said Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
The certification requirements take effect in 60 days. Until the grace period is over, growers can ship products as usual. Oregon’s nursery industry asked for the tough new rules to avoid a statewide quarantine that would have taken effect immediately and been far more disruptive, said Cam Sivesind, a spokesman for the Oregon Association of Nurseries.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had considered a quarantine of Oregon after the sudden oak death fungus was detected in a Columbia County nursery.
Under the state’s emergency rule, Oregon nurseries and wholesalers will need to have their plants tested and certified annually. The inspection program already is being considered as a model for other states, and it’s easily the most comprehensive program of its kind in the United States, Sivesind said.
“We would rather find it here at our nurseries than have a customer back east end up with symptoms on a plant,” he said.
About 75 percent of the nursery stock grown in Oregon is exported to other states.
State plant inspectors, as well as 11 specialists brought in from the USDA to assist in the effort, began making nursery inspections and testing plants as soon as the emergency rule was announced.
Daniel Wells, of D. Wells Nursery, said he is pleased by the stepped-up inspections.
“I think it’s great. I say bring them on,” he said.
Wells said he doesn’t think that his plants are at risk for sudden oak death.
At Garland Nursery in Corvallis, customers already are asking questions about sudden oak death, said Lee Powell of the nursery. Every media report about the problem generates more inquiries, he said.
The plant inspectors have a big job to complete in a couple of months. About 1,400 nurseries, roughly 70 percent of all nurseries in Oregon, sell plants vulnerable to the Phytophthora ramorum fungus.
Between the state funds and resources from the USDA, the plant inspectors should be able to handle the task, said Bruce Pokarney, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.