FINAL BILL REPORT

                  HB 1150

                         C 144 L 99

                     Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Certifying planting stock.

Sponsors:  Representatives G. Chandler, Linville and Cooper; by request of Department of Agriculture.

House Committee on Agriculture & Ecology

Senate Committee on Agriculture & Rural Economic Development

Background:  The planting stock laws authorize the Director of Agriculture to inspect, test, and certify registered, foundation, certified, or breeder planting stock.  The director is also authorized to charge fees for these services and to adopt certain rules implementing the planting stock certification program.  Samples taken of certified or registered planting stock must be planted and checked in a state crop improvement nursery and the results of these test plantings must be made available to producers and growers of the stock. The director is authorized to acquire or receive property for these state nurseries. 

Agreements for testing vegetation valuable for soil conservation and agricultural land use are authorized for a Northwest Washington Nursery. A local fund, the Northwest Nursery Fund, has been created to receive the moneys generated regarding the Northwest Nursery, as well as moneys collected from fees paid under the planting stock laws, and collected from fruit tree and fruit tree rootstock assessments under the state's horticulture laws.

Summary: Entry; Failure to Comply or Make Payments; Late Fees.  To carry out the planting stock laws, the Director of Agriculture may enter at reasonable times and inspect any property or premises and inspect records required under those laws.  If access is denied, the director may apply to a court for a search warrant or may suspend, cancel, or refuse certification or other approval of the planting stock. The director may also withhold services to growers of planting stock for refusing to comply with the planting stock laws or rules, for failing to make payments owed to the Department of Agriculture, or for nonpayment of the assessments of any commodity commission.  A late fee of 1.5 percent per month is assessed on late payments. 

Compliance Agreements; Failure to Meet Requirements.  The director may enter compliance agreements with the growers of planting stock, and may suspend, cancel or refuse certification or approval of planting stock if the stock fails to meet certification requirements.

Record-keeping; Publication of Names of Participating Growers; Notice of Test Failures; Micro Propagated Plants.  The director is authorized to establish record-keeping requirements under the planting stock laws, to publish the names of growers participating in certification programs and inspection results, and to require growers participating in certification programs to notify purchasers of planting stock when post harvest inspections or tests show that the planting stock failed to meet minimum standards for certification. The director may establish rules regarding the production, utilization, and testing of micro propagated plants for planting stock (these are plants propagated using aseptic laboratory techniques and an artificial culture medium). The director may also adopt rules for testing planting stock and may establish fees for these tests. If test plantings of samples taken are no longer required at state crop improvement nurseries.

Additional Express Authority.  The director is given express authority: for establishing tolerances for planting stock that is diseased, infected with plant pests, defective, or off-type; for excluding or removing diseased, pest infected, defective, or off-type plants from planting stock; and concerning cultivation and sanitation practices. The director's authority under the planting stock laws is more uniformly and expressly applied to foundation, registered and certified planting stock.

Repealed Provisions.  Agricultural and vegetable seeds regulated under the Seed Act are no longer exempt from regulation as planting stock under the planting stock laws.  The authority of the director to acquire or receive real and other property to be used as state crop improvement nurseries and to distribute any surplus stock is repealed; however, the director retains the authority to acquire property by gift, grant, or endowment for the benefit of the planting stock laws and to acquire, propagate, and distribute planting stock to producers and growers.  A law is repealed that authorizes the use of a Northwest Washington Nursery located near Bellingham for growing and testing vegetation valuable for soil conservation and proper agricultural land use.  Also repealed are statutes creating a Northwest Nursery Fund, authorizing expenditures from the Fund, and dedicating payments and collections to it.  The Fund is replaced by a Planting Stock Certification Account within the Agricultural Local Fund.  Also repealed is a requirement that a propagator's plant materials be under the director's observation for at least one year before being certified as foundation or breeder planting stock.

Votes on Final Passage:

House970

Senate490

Effective:July 25, 1999