House Approves Funding to Defend Against Sudden Oak Death

The House of Representatives yesterday approved $8.7 million in funding to combat Sudden Oak Death. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa Valley) requested the funding as part of the fiscal year 2005 Agriculture Appropriations Bill. “The North Coast has been hit hard by Sudden Oak Death. Far too many of our trees have been infected.” Thompson said. “This funding will aid the fight to control and eventually eradicate the disease.” Sudden Oak Death Syndrome is a fungus like pathogen that has decimated oak trees and infected other plant species such as California's prized redwood trees. The disease has stricken at least 12 California counties and has spread to the Pacific Northwest. In April the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued an order restricting the interstate movement of all California nursery stock as a result of the discovery Sudden Oak Death fungus in Southern California. This order seriously affected California's $12 billion a year nursery industry. The $8.7 Million approved by the House was allocated to the following programs. · $1.250 million for the Agriculture Research Service · $188,000 for the Cooperative State Research Education & Extension Service · $250,000 for the Genomics Laboratory at UC Davis · $7 million for Animal Plant Health Inspection Service $4.5 million in funding for Sudden Oak Death was also included in the Interior Appropriations Bill passed by the House last month. # # #