Bill Text: CA SB287 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Habitat restoration: invasive species: Phytophthora pathogens.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2018-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB287 Detail]
Download: California-2017-SB287-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Senate
March 15, 2017 |
Senate Bill | No. 287 |
Introduced by Senator Dodd |
February 09, 2017 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1)Phytophthora, the Latin term for plant destroyer, is a microscopic plant pathogen that can severely damage or kill a wide variety of agricultural, ornamental, and native plants.
(2)Phytophthora infestans caused the Great Irish Potato Famine from 1845 to 1849, and Phytophthora ramorum is the pathogen that causes sudden oak death, which has devastated oak and tanoak populations in coastal California and southwest Oregon.
(3)The presence of root-rotting Phytophthora species in commercial ornamental plant nurseries has been known for some time, but more recently, a wide variety of Phytophthora species have been identified in habitat restoration plantings and native plant nurseries in California.
(4) Native
plants have no resistance to these introduced pathogens, so they can cause great damage to our wildlands. Planting Phytophthora-infected nursery stock in native habitats may be the most direct means of introducing these pathogens into wildlands.
(5)Once these pathogens are introduced into the wild, they are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate.
(6)State agencies promote the use of nursery stock in wildlands through their vegetative coverage standards for habitat restoration projects.
(7)Use of infested nursery stock in habitat restoration projects
increases long term cost for restoring these habitats due to high rates of plant failure.
(8)The best defense against Phytophthora pathogens becoming established in wildlands is to prevent their inadvertent introduction via infested nursery stock.
(9) Existing state regulations address detection, not prevention, do not cover the growing number of Phytophthora species being introduced to the state, and do not cover all suppliers for habitat restoration projects.