Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is issuing a Federal Order, effective March 1, 2011, requiring that interstate shipping nurseries located either in counties that are established as quarantined areas or in regulated counties that have previously tested positive for Phytophthora ramorum, to provide advance notification to destination states in non-regulated areas for certain high-risk plant species. Advance notification is necessary to enhance the traceability of potentially infected nursery stock and prevent the spread of harmful plant diseases such as sudden oak death, ramorum leaf blight, and ramorum dieback which are caused by P. ramorum. This Federal Order supersedes the May 27, 2010, Federal Order regarding P. ramorum.
Under the requirements of the Federal Order, all nurseries located in the quarantine area that ship any species of Camellia, Kalmia, Pieris, Rhododendron (including Azalea) and Viburnum interstate to non-regulated areas must provide advance notification. The current quarantine areas include Alameda, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma counties in California; and Curry County in Oregon.
Also, nurseries shipping any species of the above mentioned high-risk plant genera interstate to non-regulated areas must provide advance notification if they are located in regulated counties, with one or more interstate shippers that have tested positive for P. ramorum, since 2003. The affected regulated counties include: Los Angeles, Placer, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Joaquin, Shasta, Stanislaus, Tulare and Ventura counties in California; Clackamas, Columbia, Lane, Lincoln, Marion, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties in Oregon; and Clark, Cowlitz, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Pacific, Snohomish and Thurston counties in Washington.