Oregon quarantine on nursery plants averted

By The Associated Press

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Fearing the spread of a fungus that can kill oak trees and damage other ornamental plants, federal officials had considered a quarantine on the state.

After meeting yesterday with Undersecretary of Agriculture Bill Hawks in Washington, D.C., Hooley, a Democrat, said Hawks decided against an emergency order but would continue to work with state officials to control the plant disease.

The federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a USDA agency, had traced infected stock in Maryland to Oregon, which has been working to prevent the spread of the sudden oak death fungus since it first appeared in California in the mid-1990s.

After a brief outbreak in the far-southwest corner of Oregon on the coast near the California border, state officials had declared Oregon free of the fungus.

But last week the Oregon Department of Agriculture announced it had confirmed sudden oak death disease on plants at a Columbia County nursery, just outside the Portland metro area.

Sudden oak death disease can kill certain oak trees, but it can also damage a wide range of other plants.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More local news headlines...