Federal phyto and its fee

---

I have been exceptionally grateful for the granting of phytos to my amateur, non-profit distribution of plants to many places in the United States and to many friends throughout the world. I have sent, over the years, a least a thousand plants to people over the world.

I have a listing of most of them with the people I sent them to should it be of help in defeating this money grab by the Federal Government. I totally oppose the Federal Government usurping the States' right to govern the agriculture in their state and to require a Federal Phyto at a cost of $16. I don't see any service they will perform that is not already being performed probably at a higher level by the state. The only effect will be an attempt by the Federal Government to grab more money!

I would be willing to bet that it would lead only to a great increase in the transport of "Bibles" and "Farm Implements", uninspected.

I prefer people that legislate improvements rather than people that wind up destroying things. If I have to get a Federal Phyto to send a plant anywhere at a cost of $16, the government will have achieved only one thing, prevention. They will not get money from me because I won't be able to afford it for an activity that is a simple hobby. They will simply destroy a worldwide botanical educational endeavor and get little or nothing for it. They may shut off the ability for a lot of educational institutions to get botanical samples for their collections. I was able to send an unusual plant to the Botanical Garden at the University of Vienna. I will not be able to do it if this legislation passes.

I have tried very hard to spread the word for the need to use a phyto when sending plants. It is vital to all agricultural businesses to prevent the spread of noxious diseases and pests as long as possible. Total, forever, exclusion is quite improbable but they must be held off as long as possible.

I have received plants from people without the proper phytos. This was not done out of malice or as a result of knowing cheating. They just didn't know any better. Every time I have gotten such an uninspected shipment, I have brought it immediately to your office and had it inspected before I introduced it into my plant population. On two occasions the shipment had to be returned to its origin because of the presence of an unacceptable pest. I regretted having to return them as they were very nice and not too common plants but I accepted the necessity. I would not like to go down in history as the vector that destroyed any crop in California.

I will put this warning on several plant information groups. I hope they will respond vociferously and negatively to this obvious and unnecessary attempt to get money while not performing any useful service. To me it sounds a lot like GeorgeIII's tea tax. It sounds decidedly un-American to me. This is not what we have government for. This is not why I flew 94 missions of combat as a fighter bomber pilot in WWII. I'm one of 17 that returned out of a group of 45 kids. The 28 that did not return did not die for this kind of nonsense.

I will ask people to write to their Congressmen and Congresswomen to defeat this proposal. ---Chas---

******************************************************************

        It’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles E. Dills     1371 Avalon    San Luis Obispo    CA   93405 

[Mac]  c*@mac.com  805-544-1731 www.charlies-web.com   

Climate, Calif-mediterranean  30-80 deg  20 inches rain in winter!

------------------------------------------------------------------

I can be forgetful. If I fail to do something I promised, tell me!

******************************************************************