| Section Two: Nursery & Christmas Tree |
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| Goals and objectives |
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The Nursery & Christmas Tree Program assists the nursery and Christmas tree industries in the production, marketing, and protection of Oregon nursery stock and Christmas trees. We accomplish this by:
- assisting nurseries in providing nursery stock that is free of dangerous pests and diseases
- providing pest and disease management information to the Christmas tree and nursery industries
- providing inspection and certification of nursery stock and Christmas trees grown and shipped from Oregon
- preventing the spread of injurious pests, plant diseases, and noxious weeds within the state of Oregon
- helping to prevent the introduction and spread of pests and diseases that could threaten Oregon’s Christmas tree and nursery industries by inspecting incoming shipments of plant material for compliance with Oregon and US quarantines
- making information available to all licensed Christmas tree growers and nurseries relative to importation requirements of other states and countries.
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| Nursery and christmas tree program highlights |
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- Inspection and export certification services were provided to Oregon’s $143 million Christmas tree and $818 million nursery industries.
- Oregon nursery stock and Christmas trees were exported to 63 foreign countries.
- Horticulturists conducted 6,941 inspections and issued state and federal phytosanitary certificates.
- The Nursery Research Assessment Fund collected and made available approximately $222,000 for nursery related research grants.
- Nursery & Christmas Tree Program personnel staffed a booth at the Far-West Show—Oregon’s largest nursery trade show.
- European brown garden snail, Helix aspersa, continues to be found in Oregon nurseries. During the past year, eradication efforts continued at an Oregon nursery.
- Inspections of grape blocks at 15 nurseries were completed to ensure compliance with certification requirements.
- Program horticulturists continue to survey for glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS), Hoalodisca coagulata, in nurseries shipping plant material to California under the California/Oregon Origin Inspection Program. No GWSS have been found at nurseries for the past four years.
- The program continues to provide certification for coniferous solid wood packing material going to the People’s Republic of China. Eight hundred and ten solid wood packing material certificates were issued.
- The federal Phytophthora ramorum certification program was initiated. In order to meet the requirements of the federal order, a total of 922 host nurseries and 1,028 non-host nurseries were surveyed for P. ramorum.
- Fifteen Oregon nurseries were confirmed positive for P. ramorum, eight as a result of P. ramorum certification program inspections, four as the result of a retail nursery survey conducted by the Plant Health Section, and three as a result of trace back/trace forward investigations.
- Staff received notification of 3,799 shipments of nursery stock imported into the state. Twenty high-risk shipments were inspected for dangerous pests and diseases.
- Staff attended the annual meeting of the Western Chapter of the Horticultural Inspection Society in Missoula, Montana.
- Bev Clark and Christy Brown joined the program staff as horticulturists. Bev replaced Gordon Wogan following his retirement. Christy was assigned a newly created territory in Columbia County.
- Melissa Boschee was hired as assistant horticulturist to help with the coordination of the P. ramorum certification program.
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| Nursery & christmas tree program staffing |
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The Nursery and Christmas Tree Program staff currently consists of 13 horticulturists, one assistant horticulturist, one lead horticulturist, one administrative specialist, and one program manager. The program has authorization to hire an additional horticulturist. Timing for the hiring of this position will depend on need and the availability of funding.
Photo includes: Melissa Boschee, Christy Brown, Bev Clark, Debbie Driesner, John Ekberg, Gary Garth, Dan Hawks, Jan Hedberg, Sheree Lewis, Dennis Magnello, Gary McAninch, Sue Nash, Karl Puls, Lisa Rehms, Eric Reusche, Scott Rose, and Susan Schouten.
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| Nursery program general information |
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The nursery industry continues to be the largest segment of Oregon agriculture. ODA’s nursery inspection program is funded entirely from nursery license and certification fees. Three different nursery license types are issued, depending on the nature of the nursery business. A dealer’s license is required for businesses that buy and re-sell nursery stock. Dealer’s licenses are purchased by garden centers, retail stores, florists, and landscapers. Dealer license fees are based on the purchase price (wholesale cost) of nursery stock. Cut flowers are exempt from the licensing program. Two types of nursery grower licenses are available through the department. One is a license specific for growers of greenhouse grown herbaceous plants, and the other is a license for all other nursery crops as well as collectors of native plants. The license for both of these types of licenses is based on the wholesale value of nursery stock sold.
Horticulturist Christy Brown
inspects strawberries near
Klamath Falls. Photo credit Karl Puls
During the past calendar year, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) issued 2,998 dealer licenses ($186,390,959 reported purchases); 453 licenses were issued to greenhouse growers of herbaceous plants ($90,352,8023 reported sales), and 1,416 licenses were issued to nursery stock growers and collectors of native plants ($667,923,841 reported sales). The total value of nursery stock purchases and sales reported to the ODA in 2005 was $944,667,602. During the 2005 calendar year, the nursery program conducted 5,412 inspections. Inspections are divided into the following general categories: routine and requested inspections, 1,266; inspections for Oregon quarantine compliance, 843; and certification inspections, 2,506. The remaining 797 were inspections conducted in association with P. ramorum surveys.
The Nursery & Christmas Tree Program field staff issued 4,994 state and federal phytosanitary certificates for consignment of nursery stock to foreign countries. In addition, 810 federal phytosanitary certificates were issued for shipments of lumber destined to foreign countries.
Charts:
Number of licensed nurseries
Gross sales/purchases of Oregon nursery crops
Total nursery inspections
Number of inspections by type
Phytosanitary certificates issued in 2005 (top ten countries)
| Country | # of Certificates
| | Canada | 3169 | | Japan | 163
| United Kingdom
| 89
| Germany
| 46
| Russian Federation
| 34 | Netherlands
| 31
| | Puerto Rico | 28
| Italy
| 24
| Sweden
| 22
| France
| 21
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| Nursery research assessment fund |
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Twenty-six nursery research grant pre-proposals were received for the 2005 grant year. These requests were in competition for approximately $222,000 collected through nursery research assessment fees. The Nursery Research and Advisory Committee, in cooperation with the Oregon Association of Nurseries Research Committee, selected 17 research projects that met research priorities. The Advisory Committee also voted to provide a $30,000 grant to the National Horticultural Research Institute. Several research projects not funded, or only partially funded by ODA grant dollars, were recommended to receive funding from independent private sources including: the Oregon Association of Nurserymen, J. Frank Schmidt Memorial Trust, Tree Disease Fund, and private industry.
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| Plant importation notification rule |
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Phytophthora ramorum has been found in Oregon associated with imported nursery stock on several shipments. In 2004, the Oregon Department of Agriculture adopted a notification rule (OAR 603-054-0027), allowing department inspectors the opportunity to inspect shipments of high-risk nursery stock shortly after they arrive. This rule requires recipients of imported tree and shrub nursery stock to notify the department of the shipment’s arrival. Notification can be made by mail, email, or FAX and must occur no later than two business days after its arrival. The department will contact nurseries within one business day of receipt of the notification if the imported tree and shrub nursery stock must be held for inspection.
Notification rule summary
- During calendar year 2005 we received notification of 3,799 shipments of out of state nursery stock received by Oregon nurseries. This represents approximately 31 million plants.
- Program staff determined that 20 of the shipments were high-risk and inspections were conducted.
- Eleven official rejections were issued for quarantine violations.
- Seven shipments were either returned to the shipper or destroyed.
- The most commonly received plant genera were Pseudotsuga, Tsuga, Juniperus, Picea and Thuja.
- The top three shipping states from which we received notification were California (2,012), Washington (422) and Michigan (227).
- During the same time period, we received notification of plant material from six foreign countries including Canada (133), Holland (56), and New Zealand (5).
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| Phytophthora ramorum |
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On January 10, 2005, a new USDA federal order went into effect regulating the interstate movement of nursery stock from Oregon, California, and Washington nurseries. The purpose of the order is to prevent the spread and dissemination of Phytophthora ramorum through the horticultural trade. The order requires Oregon nurseries that grow host or associated host plants to be inspected, sampled, tested, and found free of P. ramorum. Those host and associated host nurseries determined to be free of P. ramorum are required to enter into a compliance agreement before certification is granted and interstate shipping allowed. Nurseries that grow only non-host plant material are required to be visually inspected and determined free of P. ramorum before certification is granted and interstate shipments can take place.
In order to meet the requirements of the P. ramorum Federal Order, ODA staff collected 51,645 samples from 1,021 host and 13 non-host growing grounds to test for the presence of the pathogen. Phytophthora species were detected at 156 (15 percent) surveyed sites, with P. ramorum found at eight (<1 percent) of the sites surveyed. The USDA Confirmed Nursery Protocol (CNP) was enacted and completed at the eight sites. Seven hundred and ninety-six host nurseries and 1,028 non-host nurseries have entered into federal compliance agreements and are eligible to ship plants interstate.
ODA has also completed trace-out investigations at nursery sites. Trace-out investigations are initiated at nurseries that have received host or associated host plant material from known infested nurseries. A total of 326 sites, including some landscape sites, have been surveyed with 9,060 samples collected for testing. Phytophthora species were detected at 25 sites (7.7 percent), with P. ramorum identified at nine locations (3 percent)—including three nurseries. The USDA Confirmed Nursery Protocol was implemented at the three nursery sites. Eradication has been completed or is nearing completion at all of the sites.
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| Christmas tree general information |
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In 2005, the department issued Christmas tree grower licenses to 747 growers . Oregon’s Christmas tree growers harvest over 7.3 million trees annually from about 45,000 acres. License fees are used to fund 1.5 FTE (field staff) and two 0.16 FTE (program supervisor and program assistant) who provide service to the Christmas tree industry. The estimated value of the 2005 crop had not been determined at publication time. However, the value for the 2004 Christmas tree crop was estimated to be $143 million, which ranked Christmas trees as sixth among all of Oregon’s agricultural commodities. Nationally, Oregon is the number one producer of Christmas trees. License fees collected by ODA fund a program that provides inspection services to assist growers in the production of high quality Christmas trees. The program also provides certification services to growers who market their trees to other states and foreign countries.
Program activities are concentrated in the months of September, October, and November, and are generally completed by the first week of December. Some 90 percent of the Christmas trees harvested in Oregon are sold outside the state. The main activity of the Christmas tree program is certification of trees destined for foreign and certain domestic markets. Approximately 900,000 trees were prepared for sale, certified, and shipped to foreign countries during 2005. The table below shows the top six foreign destinations for Oregon Christmas trees.
Top six foreign destinations for Oregon Christmas trees.
| Country | # of Phytosanitary Certificates
| Mexico
| 1,490
| Puerto Rico
| 66
| Canada
| 52
| Hong Kong
| 24
| Guam
| 14
| Singapore
| 10
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Number of phytosanitary certificates issued
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| European pine shoot moth certification |
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The Christmas tree program also provides a European Pine Shoot Moth (EPSM) Certification Program to growers who grow and ship pine Christmas trees to California, Nevada, Montana, and Hawaii. This program also addresses Mexico’s EPSM phytosanitary certification requirements. Sixty-five Christmas tree growing sites were trapped for EPSM during the year. Based on positive trapping results, three of these sites were disqualified from shipping to California during the 2004 harvest/shipping season. As a result of shipping restrictions posed by EPSM and cereal leaf beetle, Oregon Christmas tree growers are reducing their pine tree acreage.
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| Christmas tree shipping season |
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Very few Christmas tree shipping problems related to phytosanitary issues were experienced during the 2005 season. Difficulty was experienced with a limited number of shipments going into both Puerto Rico and Mexico. The shipments in question were eventually released once treatment documentation was verified by Puerto Rican officials. Several shipments were delayed at the Mexican border, but to the best of our knowledge there were no Christmas tree shipments rejected. This is the fifth year in a row that the program had few problems shipping to Mexico. In addition, we are unaware of any shipments rejected or held for an extended time period at Arizona border inspection stations.
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| Christmas tree research |
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No Christmas tree research projects were funded during 2005.
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