USDA to Spend $15.5 Million on Sudden Oak Death Prevention

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Agriculture Department announced that it will spend about $15.5 million to try to stop the spread of sudden oak death, which has killed thousands of trees across the West Coast.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman made the announcement that detailed the transfer of the money to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to help halt the spread of Phytophthora ramorum to non-infested areas of the United States. Sources close to APHIS indicated the internal allocation of another $3 million in funding toward their P. ramorum containment and control efforts.

“We applaud Secretary Veneman for taking this critical first step toward funding a comprehensive response to this plant disease threat,” said Craig Regelbrugge, Senior Director of Government Relations for the American Nursery and Landscape Association (ANLA).  “USDA must implement a response plan that includes a comprehensive national survey of Phytophthora ramorum in the U.S. We expect further funding will be needed for prevention, compensation and research."

ANLA has worked with USDA and state officials to ensure a prompt and adequately funded response. Past survey and quarantine efforts have been limited in their success by inadequate funding, something that ANLA hopes will be remedied by the funding. ANLA is also seeking expanded research funding for P. ramorum, through the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative, and other possible channels. 

Veneman’s announcement suggests that APHIS will allocate $8.6 million of the funding to the state of California for quarantine activities and identification of infected nurseries and to fund their current federal order to prevent the further spread of the disease to other nurseries in the United States. The remaining $6.9 million will be used for surveys, other quarantine and regulatory enforcement, public outreach and laboratory diagnostics and testing.

The author is managing editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at nwisniewski@gie.net.