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From: neil jorgensen <njorgen at COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Tow items:   1. A. Sikiokianum seeds,    2 importing seeds
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1. A. sikokianum seeds.

For those of you who have asked for some of my extra A. sikokianum
seeds,  you'll save me time by sending me a mailing address.

2. USDA confiscation

To put it crudely, trying to prevent invasives and pathogens from
entering  this country merely through USDA inspections of seed packets
is like F - - ting against Thunder.

Some years ago I tried to import some perennials from England.  I
dutifully applied and received a plant importation permit.   The plants
arrived packed according to Govt. regulation,  but the USDA kept them
so long before they even notified me of their arrival that all but one
of the plants were dead when I went to pick them up.  Confiscating the
seeds seems just part of the pattern.  "I'm from the government.  I'm
here to help you," etc.,

Not as a rhetorical question but as a point of information, I would be
interested to know if,  by now, there are any other pathogens and
invasives  left to import--at least from Europe-- that could arrive in
packets of clean seed.

I live in a part of the country that has been settled since the 17th
century.  The huge number of invasive plants and introduced plant
diseases that we have messing up our natural environment here reads
like the the rogues gallery of the plant world,  For hundreds of years,
alien plants have been arriving in crop seeds, cargo packing and
probably by means we have never even thought of.  Some, such as purple
loosetrife and Phragmites have totally altered parts of the landscape.
One tree disease and insect invader after another are messing up  the
New England forests.  It seems the USDA is about 200 years too late

The USDA couldn't even stop the  recently introduced beetle from China
that is now threatening the Ash trees in the Midwest.

And somehow, i can't see exotic Arisaemas invading our environment and
squeezing out the native species or too many pathogenic microscopic
organisms to be coming in on clean, dry seed.  The people running the
NARGS seed exchanges seem to have been able to pinpoint  the few
invasives and eliminate them from the lists.

I know there have been a few  "new" weeds such as Galinsoga (?) that
have been recently introduced, but  so many of the common weeds in our
fields and forests have been here almost since the beginning of the
European settlement.

As  Barry Yinger so brilliantly put it, all of this is just another
example of  the Patriot Act mentality,   They can't protect our
container ports from a real terrorist attack but they can stop a seed
exchange.  The USDA and Homeland Security are "doin' a heck-of-a-job! "

I like the idea of finding some way to accomplish our ends in a more or
less legal way.  It would be a victory over hysterical government
regulation and bureaucracy.

n


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1.<underline> A. sikokianum seeds. </underline>


For those of you who have asked for some of my extra A. sikokianum
seeds,  you'll save me time by sending me a mailing address.


2.<underline> USDA confiscation


</underline>To put it crudely, trying to prevent invasives and
pathogens from entering  this country merely through USDA inspections
of seed packets is like F - - ting against Thunder.


Some years ago I tried to import some perennials from England.  I
dutifully applied and received a plant importation permit.   The
plants arrived packed according to Govt. regulation,  but the USDA
kept them so long before they even notified me of their arrival that
all but one of the plants were dead when I went to pick them up.
Confiscating the seeds seems just part of the pattern.  "I'm from the
government.  I'm here to help you," etc.,


Not as a rhetorical question but as a point of information, I would be
interested to know if,  by now, there are any other pathogens and
invasives <underline> left </underline>to import--at least from
Europe-- that could arrive in  packets of clean seed.


I live in a part of the country that has been settled since the 17th
century.  The huge number of invasive plants and introduced plant
diseases that we have messing up our natural environment here reads
like the the rogues gallery of the plant world,  For hundreds of
years, alien plants have been arriving in crop seeds, cargo packing
and probably by means we have never even thought of.  Some, such as
purple loosetrife and Phragmites have totally altered parts of the
landscape.  One tree disease and insect invader after another are
messing up  the New England forests.  It seems the USDA is about 200
years too late


The USDA couldn't even stop the  recently introduced beetle from China
that is now threatening the Ash trees in the Midwest.


And somehow, i can't see exotic Arisaemas invading our environment and
squeezing out the native species or too many pathogenic microscopic
organisms to be coming in on clean, dry seed.  The people running the
NARGS seed exchanges seem to have been able to pinpoint  the few
invasives and eliminate them from the lists.


I know there have been a few  "new" weeds such as Galinsoga (?) that
have been recently introduced, but  so many of the common weeds in our
fields and forests have been here almost since the beginning of the
European settlement.


As  Barry Yinger so brilliantly put it, all of this is just another
example of  the Patriot Act mentality,   They can't protect our
container ports from a real terrorist attack but they
<underline>can</underline> stop a seed exchange.  The USDA and
Homeland Security are "doin' a heck-of-a-job! "


I like the idea of finding some way to accomplish our ends in a more
or less legal way.  It would be a victory over hysterical government
regulation and bureaucracy.


n



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