WASHINGTON, D.C. —The House of Representatives approved $5.57 million in funding to combat Sudden Oak Death and invasive Ludwigia.  U.S. Representatives Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) and Mike Thompson (D-North Coast) secured the funding as part of the final version of the FY06 Agriculture Appropriations Bill.

“This money will continue to fund research that we hope will lead to the eventual eradication of Sudden Oak Death,” said Thompson.  “A large number of our oak trees have been stricken with this disease which opens the door to more serious problems such as increased erosion and forest fires.”

Sudden Oak Death Syndrome is a fungus like pathogen that has decimated oak trees and infected other plant species such as California’s prized redwood trees.  The disease has stricken at least 12 California counties and has spread to the Pacific Northwest since it was first discovered in Mill Valley in 1995.  Last year, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued an order restricting the interstate movement of all California nursery stock as a result of the discovery Sudden Oak Death fungus in Southern California.  This order seriously affected California’s $12 billion a year nursery industry.

“Sudden Oak Death has devastated the forests of the Northern California and this funding will continue efforts to stop the spread of the disease to protect our unique environment,” said Rep. Woolsey.  “I will continue to work to fund Sudden Oak Death until this disease can finally be contained."

Invasive Ludwigia is a non-native weed that has been found in Southwest Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Sebastopol area.  The unhindered and rampant growth of invasive Ludwigia can harm the environment by crowding out native plants, choking waterways threatening to impede spawning salmon and providing cover for mosquitoes carrying West Nile Disease.

The $5.57 million approved in the conference report of the Agriculture by the U.S. Congress was allocated to the following programs.

·  $2.3 million for the Agriculture Research Service

 

·  $94,000 for the Cooperative State Research Education & Extension Service

 

·  $3.076 million for Animal Plant Health Inspection Service

 

·  $100,000 for research into controlling and eradicating invasive Ludwigia

This $5.57 million to combat the spread of Sudden Oak Death and invasive Ludwigia, is in addition to the $34 million Reps. Woolsey and Thompson secured to fight Pierce’s Disease in the final version of the FY06 Agriculture Appropriations bill.