California Horse Owners: Please Read.

[connie B Berto <cberto@juno.com>]

Subject:   CERTIFIED WEED FREE FEED 
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 00 23:20:34 -0800

There is a meeting on the Feb. 29th in Sacramento...  The write up for
the meeting is as follows:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------=

MEETING TO FINALIZE A STRATEGY FOR USE OF
 WEED SEED FREE FORAGE AND STRAW IN CALIFORNIA

Tuesday, February 29, 2000
Sierra Nevada Framework Office
801 "I" Street, Sacramento
4th Floor, Room 484
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
**Please RSVP to Joanna Clines at 559/294-4938 if you are planning on
attending.  Thanks.

BACKGROUND:   A committee lead by Karl Bishop, Agriculture
Commissioner for Plumas and Sierra counties, recently completed a set 
of guidelines for certifying hay and straw as weed-free in California
(attached).   Because California already has agricultural
commissioners for every county, the implementation of these 
certification procedures is expected to proceed quite smoothly 
relative to other states, which have had to start from scratch in
deciding who would do the certification and how it would be 
documented.   Having the certification procedures available is a 
crucial first step, and the next step is to coordinate carefully 
among the agencies, public land users, and commercial growers and
processors of weed-free hay and straw to make the program work for
all.

PURPOSE:   The purpose of the February 29 meeting is to assemble 
representatives of all the diverse parties involved --  those
requiring weed-free materials to prevent noxious weed spread and
those that will be affected by the requirements.  Previous meetings 
of the certification committee have come close to having all the
players in the same room, but there has always been some key party 
missing.  There is a need for a constructive dialogue during which we
listen to each othe's concerns and work together to ensure that we 
maintain our public lands in their mostly weed-free state while 
making sure that the public is able to use their lands without undue 
restriction.  The use of certified weed-free materials will be 
increasing outside of public lands as well, for example on highway 
projects when erosion control involves mulching with straw.  Those 
that produce and process hay and straw are also integral to the 
dialogue.  

Key representatives from the following are encouraged to attend (we
are trying to keep the group size manageable to facilitate productive 
dialogue and results)

-- Land management agencies (US Forest Service, US Park Service,
Bureau of Land Management, California State Parks etc.)
-- hay and straw growers, balers, and sellers
-- end users (recreational horse people, commercial pack stock 
         outfitters, road departments)
-- regulatory agencies (county agricultural commissioners,
California Department of Food and Agriculture)
-- Caltrans

AGENDA ITEMS:

1. County agricultural commissioners/California Department of Food
and Agriculture:   background and description of certification 
procedures.  Definitions, inspection procedures, procedures for
tracking and identifying certified forage, violations, noxious weed 
list

2. Land management agencies:  agreement on timing and commitment to 
signing special orders requiring weed seed free forage and straw, 
education, enforcement.  Dialogue with end-users, growers, balers, to
ensure timing and coordination is well-planned and does not restrict
access to public lands.  

 Draft 02-14-00
Guidelines under
California Food and Agriculture Code Section 5101
for the CERTIFICATION of
WEED FREE FORAGE, HAY, STRAW and MULCH

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

The purpose of these rules is for the certification of forage free 
from noxious weeds.  Forage certified under these procedures will 
satisfy the requirements of The United States Forest Service, Bureau 
of Land Management, The National Park Service and any other agency 
accepting these procedures, permitting only weed free forage on lands 
under their control.  Included are definitions of terms, state list 
of noxious weeds, procedures for inspection and certification of weed 
free forage, and procedures for identifying and tracking certified 
forage crops.  Authority to certify forage as weed free is authorized 
under section 5101 of the California Food and Agricultural Code.

1.00 		DEFINITION OF TERMS 

a.  ``Weed free'' means to be free from propagative plant parts and 
seed from plants listed in the California Code of Regulations, Title 
3, Division 4, Chapter 6, Subchapter 6, Section 4500. 

b.  ``Propagative plant parts'' are any part of a plant capable of 
reproducing itself, including live roots, rhizomes, stolons or any 
other viable part.

c.  ``Noxious weed'' means any species of plant that is, or is liable 
to be, troublesome, aggressive, intrusive, detrimental, or
destructive to agriculture, silviculture, or native plant
communities, and difficult to control or eradicate, which the
secretary, by regulation, determines to be a noxious weed.  

d.  ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the California Department of 
Food and Agriculture.   
e.  ``Certification'' as used in this document means to certify a 
forage cutting as to the producer, commodity,  amount of production
and freedom from weed content.

f.  ``Forage'' includes hay, straw or mulch. 

g.  ``Producer'' is the grower of the forage.

h.  ``Commissioner'' as used in these rules includes county
agricultural commissioners and their deputies and inspectors.

2.00	WEED LIST

a.  Certified Weed Free Forage shall be free from propagative plant 
parts of noxious weeds listed in section 4500 of title 3, division 4,
chapter 6, subchapter 6 of the California Code of Regulations.

3.00 	PROCEDURES FOR CERTIFICATION OF WEED FREE FORAGE CROPS

a.  Application for certification shall be made by the producer or 
his agent to the agricultural commissioner of the county where the 
crop to be certified is growing or to be grown.  Such application 
shall be made no later than 14 days prior to harvest.  Application 
shall be made on a form(s) required by the commissioner.  Application 
shall include grower's name, address, telephone number, field
location(s), crop, acreage(s), estimated yield and a detailed map of 
the field(s) to be certified.

b.  Requests for certification inspections shall be made at least 14 
days prior to harvest.  Requests may be made in person, by phone, or
by fax or any other method permitted by the commissioner.  Requests
shall include grower, field number or location, crop, date of 
proposed harvest, and estimated total production by weight and number 
of bales.

c.  Procedures required in this section may be modified by the local 
agricultural commissioner in a way which would not compromise the 
integrity of these guidelines.

4.00 		INSPECTION PROCEDURES PRIOR TO CUTTING

a.  The forage crop shall be inspected in the field of origin by the 
agricultural commissioner no more than 5 days prior to harvest.  The
inspection shall include surrounding ditches, fence rows, rights of 
way and buffer zones.  The harvested forage crop shall be removed 
from the field within 14 days and shall be stacked and stored at any 
site where it would not be allowed to become contaminated with 
propagative noxious weed components. 

b.  Forage which contains any weed(s) designated on the prohibited 
noxious weed list may be certified weed free if the following 
conditions are met:

1.  Live roots, rhizomes, stolons, seeds, or other propagative plant 
parts of noxious weeds are not present in the forage to be harvested. 

c.  Inspection procedures should be based on but not limited to
methods outlined in the California Department of Food and Agriculture
Nursery Manual and Quarantine Circulars, Seed Manual  and the
National Plant Board Plant Quarantine, Nursery Inspection, and
Certification Guidelines or other procedures acceptable to the local 
agricultural commissioner in a way which would not compromise the 
integrity of these guidelines.

5.00	PROCEDURES FOR TRACKING AND IDENTIFYING CERTIFIED FORAGE

a.  A certificate of inspection shall be completed for each field and 
crop cutting inspected.  The certificate shall document that all 
conditions of these rules have been met, and shall contain 
the growers name, address, commodity, and estimated amount by number
of bales and weight. 

b.  The producer shall keep inventory sheets for each cutting from 
each field and maintain records of each sale and quantity sold from
each cutting.    

c.  The producer shall maintain these records for 2 years and make
them available for inspection by the county agricultural commissioner.

d.  All inspected forage shipments shall be accompanied by an 
embossed shipping document issued by the county agricultural
commissioner identifying the shipment as certified weed free.

e.  Records shall be maintained for two years by anyone receiving
shipments of certified weed free forage with the intention of
distributing the product as certified weed free either as a complete 
shipment or sub-divided.

f.  Each sale of sub-divided or partial shipments shall be
accompanied by a receipt when requested by the buyer with the 
statement ``The forage, hay, straw and/or mulch categorized by this
receipt has been certified to be free from noxious weeds in
accordance with the Food and Agricultural Code of California''.       

g.  In lieu of embossed shipping document, shipments may also be 
identified by attaching tags issued by the agricultural commissioner
to each bale designating the forage as weed free and traceable to the 
original cutting.   

h.  When specially colored twine becomes available through the Forest 
Service or aother federal agency, it may be used in place of the 
embossed documents or tags  to identify  forage as weed free. 

6.00	VIOLATIONS

a.  Any county agricultural commissioner, under the authority of 
section 5311 of the State of California Food and Agricultural Code, 
may at any time, initiate a notice and hearing process to determine
whether a violation of these provisions has occurred.  Violations of
Federal requirements concerning weed free forage on federal grounds 
will not be enforced by agricultural commissioners.
The hearing process may review the actions of:
1.  The certificate holder
2.  Any other person whose actions may have resulted in the violation.

b.  The notice of hearing shall be on a form approved by the 
secretary and contain:
1.  Specific provisions violated, and a warning to cease such
violations.
2.  A hearing date to determine if the certificate(s) involved in the
violation or participation privileges should be revoked.  

7.00	FEES

a.  The county agricultural commissioner may charge a fee for
conducting inspections and issuing certificates as set by the board 
of supervisors of that county, but not to exceed the actual cost of 
the performing the inspections and issuing the certificates as
permitted by section 5202 of the California Food and Agricultural 
Code.