Today's bonsaiTALK news has a feature about Wildwood Garden's problems with the recent import restrictions & quarantine program for bonsai.

http://www.bonsaitalk.com/news/arti...0001/000116.htm

This is the comment thread for that article.

You might also be interested in reading the Plain Dealer article on the same subject

Regards,

Matt

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Wow. That's really too bad for Mr. Mihalic. I hope he's able to at least partially recover his losses from the state.

I'm curious to know what the law used to be before it was changed to a two year (wow!) quarantine. Does this quarantine apply only to "artificially dwarfed plants" as the news articles states (this wouldn't really make much sense)? Do people here who are knowledgable about pests think that a two year quarantine is rational? It seems like a really long time to me.

Is the concern only a certain type of wood boring beetle, or are there several pests which raise concerns? We have some types of boring beetles in the States already I believe. Are these types currently here indiginous or were they imported at some point? How does the insect concern here relate to the disease concern I've heard mentioned elsewhere? Questions questions questions!

This is a very interesting issue to me. It's a real bummer that Mihalic asked a state USDA employee about a federal USDA issue. While it would be easy to lay the blame on the state employee who gave "bad advice," it's entirely possible that she thought she was giving him advice on state importation laws, not federal...uhhhh...or something. Ok, maybe we should blame her at least a little.

I'm curious to know what other people think about all of this. Two year quarantine. Yeesh. Has this started hurting the entire bonsai market in the US yet? Ok, no more questions, sorry.

peace,

toby

There seems to be some missing info here. The USDA destroys 229 trees...
usually an option is given to the importer, re-exportation, treatment , or destruction.
I'm thinking there might have been exotic pests, either wood boring insects, snails, or other types of insects in the shipment. If not, there may have been species of trees that were considered "post entry" where the 2 year quarantine requirement had to be met. Is Mr. Mihalic, or Wildwood Gardens, under a USDA compliance agreement as part of the new pilot program, where their facility is approved to accept these trees and grow them under USDA conditions as post entry for the 2 year quarantine requirement ?

Unfortunately the importer has to be held accountable for the ultimate disposition of an imported shipment. It is unfortunate that this has happened. I was at the JFK APHIS Plant Inspection Station last week, and a shipment for New England Bonsai came through, 17 crates with a number of different genera. Unfortunately. one particular species was found to have quarantine significant pests and the option was given to re-export, treat (fumigation), or destroy. The importer elected to destroy, and again it is the responsibility of the importer to bear the brunt of this restriction. Most of the shipment was released and NE Bonsai is part of that new pilot program, so the trees and the insect traps will be monitored by USDA for 2 years.

Jonny

It should be noted that the Mihalics (father and son) are among the many "good people" in bonsai, and, as noted, have been in business for years.

If I am not mistaken, all "artificially dwarfed trees" imported from Japan to the US require a two-year postentry quarantine at an approved facility with periodic inspections. Someone had a link here to some bonsaiweb thread that linked to the current process.

One grower told me that survival in the fumigation process is not good. He had 100% fatality. It wouldn't really be an option if there was no approved facility for quarantine.

Years ago there used to be a list of trees that could be imported from Japan without quarantine, provided there was a phytosanitary certificate and no soil. (Notable exceptions from that list were Japanese Black Pine, citrus, and many fruiting trees).

The mess at Bonsai Northwest in Tukwilla, Washington with the citrus borer seems to have raised concerns over the possible importation of pests to a hair trigger. In my opinion, singling out "artificially dwarfed trees" from any other kind of plant is needlessly discriminatory. It would be helpful to know what unique dangers "artificially dwarfed trees" present over other plants.
Regards,

Matt

The beetle that is terrorizing New York City is known to have entered the country within the wood of a shipping pallet. Hardly the fault of a "dwarfed plant".

And Chinese elm has been a proven source of Asian longhorn beetle.

Importing Chinese elm, especially larger specimen quality trees is a risky business and has been for some time. I know a supplier who imported about 50 large to very large (3-12 inch diameter trunks) a few years ago, before the stricter quarrantine regimen. The trees were barerooted and fumigated, killed almost 90 percent of the plants--the plants died over a period of months following the procedure. He took a big loss.

Importing anything alive is not for the faint hearted.

The original ALB infestations in NYC and IL were in fact from solid wood packing material either crated cargo, dunnage, etc. But there have been documented known infested "artificially dwarfed plants" from China that have been found to harbor ALB.

Jonny

Didn't say bonsai were the original source, only that they have become known by federal agricultural officials as a viable source of pests and diseases--hence the increasingly tight regulations.

This is not the first time imported bonsai stock has been torched at the importer's expense. It happened in the Pacific Northwest a few years ago too, only in that instance, there was an infestation of Asian Longhorn Beetle, if I remember correctly. Cost the importer thousands of dollars.

I definitly agree I recently visited there nursrey. They had said that they were in buisness for 40 years. I have seen some of the plants he had imported and they were awesome,I was amazed! They are also very nice people. It is to bad. Elm237