Risky business: New WSDA program protects gardens, farms, and environment from prohibited plant sales

Karla Salp
Communications

Illegal plant sales can introduce or spread new pests, 
such as this lily leaf beetle which was found
in gardens near Bellevue. 

Skyrocketing online sales since the start of the pandemic put further pressure on a known potential pathway for invasive plants and plant diseases to enter our state: illegal plant sales.

The problematic issue came into the public eye in July of 2020 when reports of seed packets from China and other countries – some solicited and some not – became widespread both in the U.S. and abroad.

The WSDA Plant Services Program had long been grappling with this challenge – occasionally receiving reports from Washington consumers about illegal plant sales on social media and through online retailers but not having a clear path forward on how to effectively respond to complaints. 

Fast forward to 2021 when WSDA started a first-of-its-kind program to directly address the issue of illegal online sales of prohibited plants: the Online Enforcement Program. With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Plant Services Program was able to dedicate the majority of one inspector’s time – Tristan Carette-Meyers – to work with vendors to stop these illegal sales. 

The problem – illegal plants threaten gardens, farms, and the environment

Blueberry scorch virus is one of the diseases
WSDA is trying to prevent in Washington
Photo credit: WSU Whatcom County Extension

While it may seem that selling plants should be helping, rather than harming, the environment, that is not always the case.

The sale of certain plants has been prohibited in Washington because their invasive nature can overwhelm and out-compete native plants. This has a downstream effect that impacts not only local plants but animals, food sources, habitat, and more.

Secondly, the movement of some uncertified plants into Washington has been prohibited because they pose a risk to the existing plants and the agriculture industry. For example, blueberry plants cannot be shipped into Washington unless certified disease-free. Washington is currently the top producer of blueberries in the country. If diseased or infested plants were to enter the state through unauthorized sales, it could decimate an entire industry to the tune of millions of dollars annually.

But it is not only farmers who would suffer. Gardeners and others who try to eat locally sourced food would soon be forced to look elsewhere for blueberries that would otherwise grow quite readily throughout the state.

The consumer-awareness solution

Protecting the state from the threat that illegal plant sales pose requires both the public and the state to take action.

Whether the plant itself may be invasive or might introduce a plant pest, consumers would be wise to protect their own gardens as well farms and the environment by educating themselves about the state’s plant quarantines.

Also, be discerning about where you purchase plants. Sales through social media or online are the riskiest – there are just too many for WSDA to monitor and many are not official businesses, making them difficult to track or contact. The few dollars you may save will rapidly evaporate should the plant you buy take over your garden or introduce a new pest or disease.

Buying from reputable, licensed, local nurseries familiar with the state plant and pest quarantines dramatically reduces the risk that the plant you buy will turn out to be Pandora’s box of problems.

While buying local does decrease your risk, you don’t have to stop shopping online altogether. Just be sure to ask the online vendor questions about the plant and their knowledge of Washington plant quarantines. A reputable vendor will be familiar with them; you may want to shop elsewhere if they can't answer your questions satisfactorily.

The vendor-awareness solution

Amazon is one vendor that has taken steps to prevent
the shipment of quarantined plants into Washington.

While consumers can take steps to protect themselves by ensuring they purchase from reputable distributors, WSDA’s new program has already been hard at work. Since it started last October, the Online Enforcement Program has contacted over 1,200 vendors about over 1,600 potential plant sale violations.

The program has focused its efforts on both big and small businesses – everything from eBay to Etsy. For example, due to the program’s efforts, Amazon and eBay have now established filters to prevent the sale of prohibited plants and other products from being available for shipment to Washington. WSDA has also provided materials to these companies to provide to their vendors to prevent future violations.

Because of their size, these platforms not only have the potential to sell the most plants illegally, but correcting those problems also has the potential to have the greatest benefit in protecting our state’s nursery and agriculture industry.

On Etsy, the program reaches out to individual sellers about potential violations. Etsy vendors have been particularly responsive.

When buying plants, safety first

Buying plants is one of the simple pleasures in life that can help people create their dream gardens. By working together, WSDA and consumers can prevent those dreams from turning into the nightmare of unexpected invasive plants, pests, and diseases. If you notice illegal plant sales – whether in-person or online – email nursery@agr.wa.gov to provide details (including links if it is online) about the incident.

3/21/23 Update: Since it started in July 2021, the Online Enforcement Program has contacted nearly 1,500 vendors about over 2,200 potential plant sale violations.

 

Proposed beetle quarantine prompts survey of small businesses in the Grandview area

Amber Betts
WSDA Communications

WSDA is working to eradicate Japanese
beetles in the Grandview, Washington area. 

If you have business in the Grandview area, WSDA wants to hear from you as it develops a Japanese beetle quarantine to control the spread of this pest.

Grandview has been dealing with an infestation of Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica). During adult flight season, between May and October, WSDA trappers caught more than 24,000 beetles. It’s a startling number given that only three beetles were caught in the area in 2020 and the kind of damage these invasive pests can do. 

In an effort to control and eradicate the pest, WSDA is planning a multi-faceted approach, including a proposal to quarantine soil and certain other items that could potentially spread the beetles if moved out of the area. 

Before doing that, we’d like to hear from businesses in and around Grandview who may be affected by the rule. The input of business owners and other stakeholders is vital to the rulemaking process. If you think your business might be impacted by the proposed quarantine, please take our survey. 

Proposed quarantine

WSDA is proposing to amend the quarantine for Japanese beetle by creating a quarantine area around a 49-square mile grid centered on Grandview, Washington. This proposed quarantine area is designed to prevent the spread of Japanese beetle from infested sites within Yakima and Benton counties. 

The proposed quarantine would regulate certain items and impose restrictions on their movement out of the quarantine area. Items for proposed regulation year-round include:

• Soil (residential, agricultural, construction, and commercial)
• Humus, compost, and growing media
• Manure
• Grass sod (turf)
• Yard debris
• Potted plants
• Bulbs
• Plant crowns
  

Items that would only be regulated during adult flight season (May 15 through October 15) include:  

• Cut flowers
• Hop bines
• Corn stalks/harvest silage  

Information collected in the survey will aid in compiling a Small Businesses Economic Impact Statement, which assesses potential impacts the proposed quarantine might have on small and large businesses. The information received will only be used in our assessment of impacts to businesses.

If you do business in the proposed quarantine area and move any of the items listed above out of the quarantine area, please take the survey and help us understand the potential impacts to your business as we formulate a Japanese beetle quarantine for infested areas in the state.

Visit our website to learn more about the Japanese beetle quarantine. 

The scoop on adding soil to the apple maggot quarantine

Amy Clow
Pest program

Washington has long had an apple maggot quarantine in place in several counties to control the spread of apple maggot into pest-free areas of the state. After months of meetings and consultation with numerous partners in the tree fruit industry, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) is proposing to add soil and growing medium to the list of apple maggot quarantine regulated materials. 

The rule change would regulate the movement of soil and growing medium, in pots or root balls of both plants that can host apple maggot and some non-host plants. 

Under the proposal, plants with soil that originate from a quarantined area must have a phytosanitary certificate stating the following if they will be moved out of the quarantined area: 

Host Plants (Apple, crabapple, hawthorn, cherry, pear, plum, prune, and quince)  

• Have not produced fruit and were not located in the drip line of host plants that have fruited or
• Originated in an area where apple maggot is not considered established based on official  trapping surveys or
• Had soil or growing medium treated with an appropriate pesticide treatment just prior to shipping.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Non-host plants grown within the drip line of fruiting host plants in the quarantine area

• Originated in an area where apple maggot is not considered established based on official  trapping surveys or
• Had soil or growing medium treated with an appropriate pesticide treatment just prior to shipping.

Click on the image for a larger version.

As a reminder, moving fruit attached to host plants is already prohibited under the apple maggot quarantine. 

The following remain unregulated, even under the proposed rule change: 

• Bare root plants (host and non-host) – host plants cannot have fruit attached
• Plants (host and non-host) originating from the WSDA pest-free area
• Non-host plants that were not grown in the drip line of fruiting host plants

In addition to adding soil and growing media to the list of regulated materials, WSDA is also proposing to change the rule to reflect how plants may enter the pest-free area if the risk is mitigated.

The rule change was first suggested by the Washington State Tree Fruit Association after WSDA trapping discovered that apple maggot had likely been moved into the pest-free area in the soil of a potted nursery fruit tree. WSDA identified soil on nursery plants as a probable pathway for the introduction of apple maggot into pest-free areas. 

Public hearings for the rule change are expected to take place sometime in January, with exact dates to be determined. 

WSDA is currently developing a Small Business Economic Impact Statement (SBEIS) to determine what economic impact this rule change may have on small businesses. The results of the SBEIS will be made public with the filing of the CR-102. Visit agr.wa.gov/Services/Rulemaking for more information on WSDA rulemaking activity or to view the CR-101. 

Visit agr.wa.gov/applemaggot to stay informed about this rule change and other apple maggot quarantine issues. 

Don’t Cross the Line: WSDA Expands Apple Maggot Quarantine

Karla Salp
Pest Program 

Apple damaged by apple maggots

As the old saying goes, don’t let a bad apple spoil the barrel. In an effort to protect Washington’s many barrels of apples, WSDA expanded the apple maggot quarantine area effective Jan. 1.

Recently, WSDA found apple maggot in the southeastern corner of Lincoln County. The expanded quarantine now includes a portion of Lincoln County to prevent further spread of the pest. The quarantine prohibits the movement of homegrown or foraged fruit from the quarantined area into a pest-free area.

WSDA has held public meetings in the process of changing the quarantine boundaries and mailed postcards to residents in or near the new quarantine area to alert them to the change.

Apple Maggot Quarantine

Apple maggot quarantine effective Jan. 1, 2017

The apple maggot larva looks like a tiny white worm that eats its way through an apple, leaving behind a brown mush that is not fit for human consumption.
Apple maggot quickly spread through Western Washington after its introduction, but state and local efforts have so far prevented it from becoming established in the main apple growing regions of the state.

Searchable Map

WSDA has updated its apple maggot webpage with lots of information for commercial growers, home owners, and more. One of the features of the new website is that it now contains a searchable map. The new map allows anyone to enter an address and find out whether the address is inside or outside the quarantine area.

Apple Maggot and Garbage

Adult apple maggot fly

WSDA also clarified a rule that prohibited the transport of municipal and green waste from quarantined areas into pest-free areas. For the homeowner in a quarantine area, this means they cannot take yard waste or garbage to dumps or transfer stations in the pest-free area. Waste from a quarantined area can be taken to any waste facility that is also in the quarantine area.

More than apples - What to do with your fruit

Apple maggot can spread quickly when humans move fruit (including apples, crab apples, hawthorn, cherries, pears, plums, and apricots) into pest-free areas. That is why WSDA prohibits the movement of fruit from inside the quarantine to outside of the quarantined area.

So what can you do with your fruit if you live in a quarantine area? Here are some ideas for managing your fruit and yard waste.

• Process (cook, can, juice, dry, etc.) homegrown fruit before transporting outside the quarantine area.
• Compost or destroy yard waste at home.
• Take yard waste to a green waste disposal area inside the quarantine area.

If you have more questions about Washington’s apple maggot quarantine, visit agr.wa.gov/PlantsInsects/InsectPests/AppleMaggot/ to learn more.