Growers Gain Allies Against Ban

Some of the nation’s biggest retailers threw their weight Friday behind California’s $2.35-billion wholesale nursery industry, urging federal officials to stop other states from barring imports of California-grown plants.

A retailers’ trade group -- representing Home Depot Inc., Lowe’s Cos. and other giants -- wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture to bring Florida and 15 other states into compliance with federal rules designed to contain a plant disease that’s been found in both California forests and nurseries.

Those states have established a panoply of restrictions on California nursery products. To the consternation of California growers, many of these states’ rules go beyond the USDA requirements.

Now, big-box retailers are getting into the fray because the restrictions are starting to cost them business.

The Retail Industry Leaders Assn. sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman asking that she take a more aggressive stance against what it called “arbitrary� state bans. That follows a similar missive from U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both California Democrats, and much of the state’s congressional delegation.

Sandra Kennedy, president of the retailers’ group, wrote that “unless you truly implement your own Department’s rule, and stop the actions by the states, you will be putting at risk tens of millions of dollars [in sales] that our members depend on during the spring gardening season.�

States that deviate from USDA regulations violate the federal Plant Protection Act, but the agency is reluctant to initiate any legal action because it has resolved previous disputes like this through negotiation and compromise, said Larry Hawkins, a USDA spokesman.

California ships about $500 million of plants to other states annually. Between the state bans, new USDA regulatory expenses and the destruction of infected plants, producers have lost more than $50 million since March, according to the California Assn. of Nurseries & Garden Centers.

Among those hit have been Monrovia Nursery Co. in Azusa, which has been forced to destroy $4.3 million of infected plants. Meanwhile, at Nuccio’s Nursery in Altadena, mail order sales have dried up. “A lot of states just won’t take any California plants,� said co-owner Jim Nuccio.

The USDA this week stepped up inspections and restrictions on plants leaving California, a move designed to mollify concerns voiced by other states. Containing the disease, called sudden oak death, has taken on more urgency since its was detected last month at two large commercial nurseries in Southern California.

Still, Florida, the nation’s No. 2 supplier of nursery plants, remains wary. Although state officials have slightly relaxed their all-out ban of California plants, they are balking at easing their rules to comply with the federal regulations.

Florida officials contend that its warm, humid climate and plant diversity would make the state a prime breeding ground for the pathogen. The situation “presents a real and ongoing threat to the agricultural industry, environment and economy,� said Denise Feiber, spokeswoman for Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs.

Under its new rules, Florida said it would still block anything from a federal list of 60 species known to either host the disease or suspected of being a potential carrier. For other plants, Florida will accept shipments with a California-issued certificate that says they are free of the disease and come from a nursery that is also pathogen free.

But practically speaking, Florida’s rules represent a nearly complete ban on California plants, said Tom O’Brien, a regulatory specialist for the Golden State’s nursery industry. The federal government will pay for USDA-required inspections, he said, but the California Department of Food and Agriculture has neither the budget nor the personnel to meet Florida’s more-stringent requirements.