Not so dandy – diverse plantings improve pollinator forage

Karla Salp
Communications

Dandelions with Mt. Adams in the background

Love them or hate them, this time of year dandelions are starting to bloom, leading to the oft-repeated claim that dandelions are a great source (sometimes also claimed the only source) of early spring blooms for honey bees and other pollinators. While dandelions can be an important source of pollen for bees if there is nothing else blooming, in reality, the plants lack some essential amino acids necessary for the proper development of the hive. Dandelions can indeed help bees survive when necessary, but alone honey bees cannot thrive on them.

If you want to help pollinators, it is best to have diverse flower sources that bloom throughout the year. Here are some ideas of things to plant that make a difference for bees all year long:

Trees for Bees

Honey bee on tree blossoms

Believe it or not, trees can be one of the best sources of forage for pollinators and can provide some of the greatest density of forage/acre for bees. Most people think of fruit trees – such as cherries, apples, and pears – as being good forage sources and indeed they are. But many other trees – such as maple, linden, and willow – are also a-buzz with bees when they are in bloom. The flowers may be tiny but trees produce thousands of them, providing a glut of forage for pollinators when in bloom. Tip: If you have space, plant a variety of trees that combined bloom over a long period of time.

Shrubs

Honey bee on lavender

In addition to trees, there are numerous native and cultivated shrubs that provide copious flowers for pollinators. In Western Washington, there are several plants that will bloom even in the winter months – well before the dandelions show their sunny petals. Native plants like the red flowering currant and serviceberry are pollinator favorites. But cultivated shrubs like lilac, blueberries, and lavender also provide excellent sources. Shrubs are great for any yard and because they are generally much smaller than trees, most people have room for at least one shrub in their garden.

Flowers (of course)

While they don’t provide the quantity of forage found with trees and shrubs, flowers remain an important source of food for pollinators. The best part is that virtually everyone can plant flowers for pollinators, even if you only have a small pot on a balcony. Honey bees tend to prefer daisy-like flowers with flat, open surfaces, but plant a variety of flowers with different shapes to attract and support a wider range of pollinators. Clover is one type of flower that honey bees particularly like. Allowing clover to remain in your lawn provides not only forage for pollinators but it does double-duty and fixes nitrogen for your lawn as well!

Variety is the spice of pollinators’ lives

Bumblebee on berry flower

Like humans, some pollinators like honey bees need a varied diet for optimum nutrition and health. Some pollinators are specialists and rely on one type of plant as their sole food source. If you want to support a wide variety of different pollinators, including honey bees, aim to grow a variety of different plants that bloom at all different times of the year. Dandelions may bring a bee to your yard, but year-round blooms will keep them there.

For more information on helping pollinators in Washington State, visit agr.wa.gov/pollinators to learn more about WSDA’s Pollinator Health Task Force. 

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.

 

Hold your horses - what horse owners need to know about EHM and EHV-1

Dr. Bruce Hutton
WSDA Field Veterinarian

Spring is just around the corner and horses are going to be coming together under stressful conditions whether for a weekend trail ride, jackpot roping, or a large, nationally-organized event – prime conditions for equine herpes virus (EHV). 

Just this month, a horse in King County tested positive for non-neuropathogenic EHV-1 neurologic strain. Unfortunately, the horse had to be euthanized.

There are multiple strains of EHV-1 in horses. A diagnosis of EHM is made when a horse is infected with EHV-1 and showing neurological signs independent of what strain of the virus the horse is infected with. 

To be clear, the horse in Washington was not infected with the strain of virus currently causing an EHM outbreak in California. 

The outbreak in California is caused by the neuropathogenic strain of EHV-1 which is more highly contagious and more deadly than the non-neuropathogenic strain. 

The horse diagnosed in Washington was infected with the non-neuropathogenic strain which usually causes only mild respiratory diseases. Unfortunately, this horse also developed neurological signs (EHM) and had to be euthanized. 

With this recent case and the recent cases in California, it’s a good time to review your knowledge of EHV-1 and equine herpes meyloencephalopathy (EHM), and make sure you have a robust biosecurity program to prevent the spread of disease associated with commingling of horses.

What to watch for 

Most horses have been exposed to, or infected with, the equine herpes virus by the time they are two years old.

There are several equine herpes viruses, with EHV-1 and 4 posing the greatest risk to the horse community. Symptoms of EHV-1 infection in horses include: 

• respiratory disease (rhinopneumonitis)
• abortions
• neonatal death
• neurological disease

EHV-4 produces a mild to moderate respiratory disease in foals, occasionally causes abortions, and in extremely rare cases develops into EHM. 

After an initial EHV-1 infection, the virus remains in the body in its latent form, essentially hiding from the immune system, waiting for the opportunity to revert to its active form. Stress, caused by traveling, training, overcrowding, or competition, is often the trigger for the virus to revert.  

Once active, EHV-1 is highly infectious and spreads quickly through direct contact with nasal secretions or aerosol droplets. Direct horse-to-horse contact does not require the horses to have actual physical contact, only direct contact with the nasal discharges of an infected horse. 

People can’t be infected by the virus, but they often facilitate its spread through contamination of hands, clothing, equipment, tack, trailers, stalls, feed buckets, water buckets, and many other items. In addition, aerosol droplets can travel several feet to infect other nearby horses.

Once infected with EHV-1, horses will usually exhibit signs of illness within four to six days.  Clinical signs range from mild respiratory to severe neurological deficits. Typical signs of respiratory disease include fever, discharge from the eyes and nose, slight cough, depression, going off feed, and swollen lymph nodes. Clinical signs of EHM include fever, depression, hind end weakness and incoordination, loss of tail tone, head tilt, urine dribbling, and may present as down and unable to rise. 

EHM cases often have minimal to no respiratory signs. Unlike respiratory disease, from which most horses recover, EHM is a life-threatening disease with no cure. Treatment is limited to supportive care and the prognosis is poor with a fatality rate as high as 30 percent.  

Even though EHV-1 is highly contagious and can quickly spread among horses, it doesn’t typically persist long in the environment and can be neutralized efficiently with good hygiene practices. In fact, EHV-1 is estimated to persist in the environment for less than 7 days and no more than 30 days under ideal conditions.  

Available vaccines can prevent the respiratory and abortion forms of EHV-I, but none are labeled as preventing EHM. Maintaining a vaccination protocol for the respiratory and abortion forms of EHV-1 decreases viral shedding and may decrease the incidence of EHM. 

Strong biosecurity measures, which should be in place even in the absence of an outbreak, are essential for limiting the spread of EHV-1 and EHM.

Protecting your horse

Here are some recommendations to minimize the spread of EHV-1 before, during, and after commingling at a show or event: 

1. Have a strong biosecurity plan and practice it at all times to prevent the spread of infectious agents.
2. Keep horses current on all recommended vaccines and have health papers in order.
3. Prevent horse-to-horse contact and provide each horse with its own equipment including tack, grooming equipment, water bucket, feed bucket and all other items. Do not share the equipment with other horses.
   
4. Keep people from touching your horse, especially around the face, nose, and neck. If people do touch your horse (groomers, hair braiders, veterinarians, etc.), insist they first wash their hands with soap and water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, and again after touching your horse. 
5. Bring several gallon jugs of your own water to water your horse so you won’t need to use a common hose.
6. If a common hose is used for watering, make sure the nozzle and any other part which could touch the water bucket is disinfected. After the hose is disinfected, hold it high above the water bucket, do not touch any part of the bucket with the hose. Do not immerse the hose end into your water bucket when filling it. 
7. Disinfect your shoes or boots right after the show and before returning to your barn.
8. Wash your clothes immediately after attending a show.
9. Don’t stable your horse with other horses. If you can, keep your horse in its trailer. If you must stable it, clean, and disinfect the area thoroughly.
10. Check your horse’s temperature twice daily for at least two weeks after returning home and monitor them for the respiratory or neurological signs mentioned above. If a fever develops or signs appear, contact your veterinarian immediately and let them know you have recently traveled with your horse, and the particulars of the show

Reportable diseases

EHV-1 and EHM are reportable diseases in the state of Washington. Visit our Reportable Diseases webpage to report cases. 

After contacting your veterinarian, it is likely they will take nasal swabs and blood samples to check for EHV-1. It is important to isolate your horse and treat them as if they were infected until laboratory results come in.

Prevention, through good planning and good biosecurity plans, is always better than dealing with an outbreak. The Equine Disease Communication Center (EDCC) at equinediseasecc.org/alerts provides a good online tool for horse owners interested in checking out the current equine disease alerts in the United States and Canada. It’s always a good idea to check before you go.

WSDA awards Director Citation to retiring director of state hop commission

Amber Betts
WSDA Communications

Ann George (L), accepts the WSDA Director's 

Citation award, presented by WSDA's Brad White (R). 

The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) director’s citation award is an honor that is given to recognize those in the ag community who have devoted their lives to promote and enhance agriculture in our state.

So it was no surprise to those around her that Ann George, Executive Director of the Washington State Hop Commission, was presented with the honor at a regular Washington Hop Commission meeting March 23, 2022.

“Ann has shown incredible dedication, devotion, and passion for the promotion of hops and agriculture in general in our state. As she prepares to retire, she leaves quite the legacy behind,” WSDA Director Derek Sandison said. “It is my absolute honor to present her with this award.”

Dr. Brad White, WSDA’s plant protection assistant director, presented the award on behalf of WSDA Director Sandison at a recent meeting of the Washington Hop Commission.

Ann served as the Executive Director of the Washington Hop Commission and Hop Growers of Washington since 1987. Her resume and list of accomplishments do not stop there.

She also served as the executive director of Hop Growers of America since 2007. As she prepares for retirement, Ann leaves a 35-year legacy, playing a key role in forming the US Hop Industry Plant Protection Committee, an international regulatory harmonization program. She also was crucial in forming the HGA Best Practices Committee and Good Bines educational platform. If that wasn’t enough to make her mark on agriculture in the state and across the nation, she also manages Science and Technical programs, political and regulatory efforts, and has secured numerous grants to expand the hop industry’s resources.

Today, Washington produces more hops than any other state in the nation, and hops are among our top 10 crops, with revenues of $445 million in 2019.

“It’s important to note, this isn’t an annual award,” Megan Finkenbinder, WSDA fairs and commissions administrator, said. “It’s only given to those who have truly risen to the level of contribution to the industry and deserve this prestigious award,”.

Visit our Director's Citation webpage to learn about previous recipients and how to nominate someone for recognition as exceptional supporters of our state's farming, ranching, and food producing community.

Drought and soil survey for Washington’s dryland wheat farmers

Dani Gelardi
WSDA Soil Health Scientist

Are you a dryland wheat farmer affected by the 2021 drought? If you are, the Washington State Department of Agriculture needs your help. 

As part of its continuing work addressing soil health, WSDA is looking for information from dryland wheat farmers about soil management practices, particularly relating to drought. This information will be critical for the researchers involved in the Washington Soil Health Initiative as they learn ways to support agricultural operations enduring drought conditions in the future.

The Drought and Soil Survey will be open until May 1. The survey is detailed, but can be completed over multiple sessions and does not have to be filled out all at once. 

Questions will cover how you manage your soils, the cost of implementing different soil management practices, and the effects of the 2021 drought on your operations.

Results will increase our understanding of dryland production and help us communicate with decision makers so we can better support you. Survey takers will be anonymous, but we will make a summary of the responses available to the agricultural community. 

This survey is being conducted on behalf of the Washington Soil Health Initiative, a joint effort of WSDA, Washington State University, and the Washington State Conservation Commission to study soil health in our state and explore ways to improve it.

Soil health focuses on how well a soil system supports plants, animals, and people. It also recognizes the living nature of soils and the importance of soil microorganisms. Visit agr.wa.gov/AgScience to find our soil health page.