Growers endorse apple moth inspection strategy

Agriculture officials and wine grape growers are taking steps to allow harvest to continue without interruption despite large swaths of Sonoma County farmland sitting under quarantine because of the light brown apple moth.

The presence of the pest from Australia has resulted in 20,000 acres of the vineyards in the county being placed in quarantine. That amounts to about a third of all the county?s vineyards.

Most of the affected lands came under quarantine last month, when inspectors trapped 25 apple moths. The May results amounted to 40 percent of the 63 moths found in the county in the past 15 months.

Quarantines now exist for farmland near Sonoma, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol and Healdsburg. More than 800 farmers of various crops are affected, according to county officials.

The $400 million grape crop is by far the county?s most valuable agricultural product. Besides grapes, the quarantine areas take in 90 nurseries, almost 840 acres of apple trees and more than 600 acres of vegetable crops.

At a meeting Monday in Santa Rosa, county agriculture officials told 60 grape growers and other farmers that the quarantine areas likely will keep expanding during the summer.

Paul Turano, an agricultural biologist with the county, told the group, ?What we don?t want to have happen is: Here you are in the middle of harvest and you get a phone call from our office, and say, ?By the way, you?re now in the quarantine area. You can?t move any grapes until you?ve done some paperwork and you?ve had your vineyard inspected and it may be two to three days before we can get a crew out there to you.??

To avoid that scenario, county Agricultural Commissioner Cathy Neville and her staff are urging grape growers to agree in writing to regularly inspect their own vineyards for signs of the moth.

The grape growers must agree to weekly examine 200 grape clusters from 20 vines in each vineyard. In return, officials said that under a quarantine, county staff would simply need to review a grower?s examination records and conduct only a ?brief spot inspection? of the vineyard before harvest.

In contrast, those grape growers under quarantine who didn?t agree to make their own examinations must have inspections within 30 days prior to harvest. Teams of state or federal inspectors likely would walk through those vineyards.

The presence of the apple moth was confirmed in California two years ago. The federal government has allocated $75 million to fight the pest, which officials maintain can damage more than 250 crops and such native species as cypress and oak trees.

Critics dispute the harm the pest can cause. They have urged the federal government to downgrade the threat status, a move that effectively would end the quarantines.

Officials said the participating grape growers must examine the grape clusters until the berries become so large that they touch each other, an event known as bunch closure.

At that point, farmers no longer can see amid the berries to detect spider-like webbing that might signal the presence of an apple moth worm or larvae. Officials said they expect bunch closure to occur in the next few weeks for some grape varietals.

Monday?s meeting was the ninth that county officials have held with farmers in recent weeks. A tenth meeting will occur June 15 at the county Agricultural Commissioner?s Office north of Santa Rosa off Airport Boulevard.

Apple and vegetable farmers and nursery owners also must undergo inspections if they come under a quarantine. They don?t yet have a program to allow them to conduct their own examinations. But apple growers will be deemed to meet the rules if inspectors see that the apples are sent to market in bins free of leaves and twigs.

Many of the grape growers Monday said their lands now remain free from quarantine. Nonetheless, they said, as a precaution they will agree to make their own examinations now and to document their efforts.

?I can?t afford to wait until the end and then find out we?re under quarantine,? said Saralee McClelland Kunde.

Her family?s Windsor business, Richard?s Grove and Saralee?s Vineyard, includes 500 acres of vineyards and sells to more than 50 wineries.

This year each winery that receives grapes from quarantined lands must sign agreements to abide by state and federal rules designed to prevent the spread of the moth. Even home winemakers are required to sign such agreements, county officials said.