Crop quarantine imposed between Santa Rosa, Sebastopol

<p>The establishment of a third Sonoma County agriculture quarantine area is prompting farmers to worry that eradication of the light brown apple moth is becoming increasingly difficult.</p><p>The latest moth quarantine zone, which reaches from Sebastopol to the outskirts of southwest Santa Rosa, was announced Monday by state agriculture officials. The area takes in 18 square miles and includes 23 nurseries and landscaping companies, 280 acres of grapes and 70 acres of apples.</p><p>Growers, nurseries and residents inside those areas are prohibited from moving plant material off their properties without having it inspected. However, residents can continue to deposit yard waste in containers for curbside pickup.</p><p>Growers are required to have their fields inspected prior to harvest to confirm their crops are free of the pests.</p><p>The state has found 25 apple moths in the county and has imposed three quarantine areas in the past year, heightening grower concerns.</p><p>“It seems like it’s moving north,” said John Balletto, chairman of the 1,800-member Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission. Balletto, president of Balletto Vineyards, has a vineyard in the new quarantine area.</p><p>Officials have trapped nearly 1,200 apple moths in nearby Marin County and more than 25,000 in San Francisco. In all, nearly 72,000 such insects collected statewide in the past two years.</p><p>State and federal agriculture officials said Monday there will be no immediate eradication efforts because the county already has too many moths. Eventually, they hope to release millions of sterile moths statewide in an effort to disrupt breeding, but no date has been set for such a release, and no timetable has been set for such a program in Sonoma County.</p><p>The moth, a native to Australia, was first confirmed in California two years ago. Since then most of the trapped moths have been found in the Bay Area south to Monterey.</p><p><NO1><NO>In Sonoma County, the first two moths were found last year near Sonoma, but the quarantine there was lifted last fall after no more moths were found. Another quarantine remains in effect in the Carneros grape-growing region in southern Sonoma and Napa counties.</p><p>Agriculture officials say the moth can attack more than 2,000 plant species, including more than 250 crops, with larvae damaging fruit by feeding on the plant surface. They also say the moth can deform young oak and cypress seedlings and damage new growth in forest canopies.</p><p>Critics argue that the threat to the state’s environment and agriculture is overstated. They have urged the federal government to downgrade the danger level of the pest, a step that could end the quarantines.</p><p>Agriculture officials, however, have said that they expect the moths to increase in number if nothing is done to eradicate the pest.</p><p>Nick Frey, the grape commission president, said it appears difficult to get rid of the moth given the growing numbers in Marin and San Francisco and the lack of eradication efforts in the county.</p><p>“I think it’s going to be here,” Frey said of the moth.</p><p>Bassignani Nursery on Highway 116 is one the many nurseries in the quarantine area. Owner Tony Bassignani, who met Monday with county agriculture inspectors, said he didn’t expect the moth would greatly affect his business because the nursery already sets traps and gets inspections for other invasive pests.</p><p>Still, he said, he wants neighbors to get informed about efforts to keep the moth from spreading.</p><p>“It’s very serious because once you get it in here you have a hard time getting rid of it,” Bassignani said.</p><p>The Sebastopol quarantine area extends from Highway 12 in the north to Highway 116 and Stony Point Road in the south.</p><p>On the eastern side, the boundary begins at Highway 12 and Llano Road, runs south to Ludwig Avenue and then east to Stony Point.</p><p>The western boundary begins in Sebastopol at Highway 12 and Petaluma Avenue, a part of Highway 116. Other roads on the western boundary include Elphick, Snow, Bloomfield, Canfield, Blank and Hessel.</p>