SOD Making Oregon Nurseries Nervous

Signs of "sudden oak death" (SOD) at a nursery in Columbia County, Oregon have raised the possibility that plants from other Oregon nurseries might be quarantined by federal agricultural officials.

Because neighboring counties count nursery plants as their top cash crop a quarantine could be economically devastating for local nurseries that export products to other states and countries.

The Columbia County case is not the first time SOD has been detected in Oregon, and in previous cases quarantines were only imposed locally because there was no evidence of the disease spreading.

The State Department of Agriculture says, however, that a nursery could resume shipping plants if an inspector certifies that its stock is disease free.

SOD is a fungus believed to have originated in Europe and first detected in the U.S. in California in 1995.

The Oregon State University Extension Service says SOD does "sub-lethal" damage to other species, including Douglas fir trees and cultivated rhododendrons.

Because previous outbreaks of the disease were only in nursery stock, Oregon nurseries are required to notify the state Department of Agriculture no later than two days after importing certain plants.