Harrisburg – At its July 15 meeting the Department of Agriculture’s (PDA) Controlled Plant and Noxious Weed Committee (CPNWC) voted to list barberry (Berberis thunbergii) as Class B Noxious Weed, prohibiting the propagation, growing, sale or transportation of the species in Pennsylvania. As a part of that action, the CPNWC voted to defer enforcement of the ban for two years to allow the industry to adjust and to allow growers to petition the CPNWC to grant exceptions to the ban for sterile cultivars of barberry.
Since the meeting, PLNA has been waiting for official guidance from the Department on how the enforcement deferral and process for exempting sterile cultivars will be implemented. With ordering for spring of 2022 well under way, many questions remain about how this enforcement deferral and sterile cultivar exemption process will work.
PLNA recently submitted a list of questions to PDA that it would like answered. Those questions are below:
When will guidance be issued to the industry on the meaning of the two-year enforcement moratorium called for by the Controlled Plant and Noxious Weed Committee when it voted to list barberry (Berberis thunbergii) as a class B noxious weed at its July meeting?
Will shipments of barberry from out-of-state nurseries be permitted during the two-year enforcement moratorium?
When will guidance be issued on the process for growers to apply to the Department for an exception to the barberry noxious weed listing for sterile cultivars? Orders are now being taken for plants for the spring 2022 sales.
Who will be eligible to apply to the Department for an exception to the barberry noxious weed listing for sterile cultivars?
To whom will the license or exception be issued? Will it be to a specific nursery growing that cultivar, or to that cultivar generally, regardless of who propagates, grows and sells it?
What information will the Department require from petitioners for an exception to the barberry noxious weed listing for sterile cultivars?
What criteria will the Department use in determining whether a cultivar will be issued an exception to the barberry noxious weed listing for sterile cultivars?
If an exception is issued, for how long will that exception be valid?
How will the Department verify that a barberry cultivar that has been issued an exception and is in the trade is, in fact, a true genetic clone of that cultivar?
Will there be chain of custody requirements from the licensed propagator to final sale in the garden center, landscape contractor, wholesale yard, etc.
What will PDA do to alert and educate the public that barberry is now class B noxious weed?
Will PDA be providing any educational literature/brochures to garden centers, wholesale yards, landscape contractors that they can distribute to customers about barberry’s status a noxious weed?
Will PDA be reaching out to garden writers and master gardeners across the state about barberry’s status as a noxious weed?
PDA has the authority under the Controlled Plant and Noxious Weed Act to compel property owners to remove noxious weeds from their properties. Will PDA require homeowners, commercial property owners, non-profit property owners or government property owners to remove existing barberry from their properties? If so, how long do they have to accomplish such removal?
PDA has told PLNA that it anticipates guidance to be issued before Thanksgiving.Stay tuned to PLNA e-News for updates.
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Harrisburg – At its July 15 meeting the Department of Agriculture’s (PDA) Controlled Plant and Noxious Weed Committee (CPNWC) voted to list barberry (Berberis thunbergii) as Class B Noxious Weed, prohibiting the propagation, growing, sale or transportation of the species in Pennsylvania. As a part of that action, the CPNWC voted to defer enforcement of the ban for two years to allow the industry to adjust and to allow growers to petition the CPNWC to grant exceptions to the ban for sterile cultivars of barberry.
