USDA Plant Import Permits

Well I guess it is time to start a thread to discuss the need of plant import permits, and the various agricultural regulations pertaining there to.

For those International members, who may not understand the gardeners plight in the USA,
there is much information to be shared beside the squeeze casual gardeners are put in.

In the last 10 years, this country has really opened up trade with Asia. That doesn't sound bad, until you take a close look at what new insect enemies we have welcomed into this country inadvertantly. For instance, on the east coast USA, wooden crates, made of green lumber (that means not heat or dry kiln treated), received from an Oriental country, probably will contain some kind of Beetle Grubs. This seems so innocent to most people. But it is not.

In one case, on the east coast USA, beetles reached the age of pupation at an American dock, moved out of the green wood they had spent all their years in, and flew off to breed and procreate, 13,000 miles from where their eggs were originally layed. This still sounds pretty innocent. These beetles then layed their eggs on a single genus of shade trees, all around this city. If I remember correctly, the genus was Acer, The Maples. In the USA,
this is one of the principle shade trees, not to mention, that the worlds largest species of Maples are native to the USA. This specie of Beetle probably never saw a 300 year old maple, before appearing in the USA. They attacked the shade trees on the property of historic sites as well as the rich and famous, and the city parks. This did not go unnoticed.

After this problem was diagnosed by the dept of agriculture, a remedy was concluded.
The remedy, was this: no shipping crates could be off loaded on a dock in the USA, if the crates were not made of Heat Treated lumber. 160 degrees F for 4 hours will kill all insect grubs. That gets rid of repeats of THAT beetle introduction, but what about other Agricultural products.???????????? How can you stop something like this from repeating itself, if you don't know what is coming into the country in the mail???

Therefore, I think it is time for us to have a discussion about all these new regulations.
A number of our people here on the forum have had confiscations, on incoming seeds, after years and years of no problems. These regulations are not going away.
I believe that forwarned is forarmed. The aquisition of these permits, is not that much different than getting a hunting liscense or other permits. It is however, very irritating that you have to jump through so many hoops, over such a long period of time.

When the opportunity to aquire a specie of seed is available today, it is very ephemeral. It wont be there 6 months later when your permit arrives. It is also disconcerting that some venders in foreign countries will ship nothing to the USA, because our customs people have shafted them........... Any thoughts, Frank

This message was edited Jan 5, 2009 7:54 PM