Re: Monrovia nursery and SOD

**"* <p*@mindspring.com>**

Georgia has now quarantined shipments from
California with the following statement:

Georgia Department of Agriculture
Tommy Irvin, Commissioner
19 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. SW
Atlanta, GA 30334

PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For information contact:
March 15, 2004 Arty Schronce or Jackie Sosby (404) 656-3689

Serious threat to forests, city trees, gardens Georgia Agriculture Dept.
Quarantines All Nursery Plants from California

ATLANTA - The Georgia Department of Agriculture has issued a quarantine
against all nursery plants from California due to a serious fungal
disease found in at least one nursery that ships plants into Georgia and
due to the possibility of the disease in other California nurseries that
may ship into the state.

Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin issued the quarantine
today following notification that the Sudden Oak Death fungus
(Phytophthora ramorum) had been discovered on camellias at Monrovia
Nursery, Azusa, California, a major supplier of many kinds of plants to
garden centers across the country. The disease has also been discovered
in Specialty Plants, Inc., San Marcos, California. Department of
Agriculture personnel are working to determine if that nursery shipped
any plants to Georgia.

"There are 11 other California nurseries where high risk samples have
been taken," Commissioner Irvin said. "The California Department of Food
and Agriculture has said they are 90 percent sure the samples are
positive for the disease, but they will not quarantine the nurseries and
have said they will not release the names of the nurseries until the
samples are confirmed positive - probably sometime next week. We will be
closing the borders to all California nurseries before close of business
today if they do not release the names of the 11 nurseries," said
Commissioner Irvin.

"Sudden Oak Death is an extremely serious disease. It not only affects
oaks but other plants as well including azaleas, rhododendrons, maples,
beeches and buckeyes. This has the potential to be more devastating than
Chestnut Blight, which wiped out virtually all stands of the native
American chestnut in the 1930s. The cost to lumber companies,
homeowners, gardeners, and cities would be overwhelming and the damage
to wildlife and our landscape would be heartbreaking," said Irvin.

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