LAKE COUNTY ? A new measure aimed at curbing the spread of apple and pear pests to commercial orchards from neighboring trees was adopted by the Lake County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
Lake County Agricultural Commissioner Steve Hajik asked the board to approve the new ordinance before pear and apple trees are in full bloom, which is expected in a month. The new measure means property owners who have unmanaged apple or pear trees growing within a quarter-mile of a commercial orchard will be required to control any pests Hajik”s investigators find in the trees.
“If the property owner does not go forward as directed, then there will be an action ? a court order. The property owner”s protection will be notice and an opportunity to be heard in court,” Lake County Counsel Anita Grant said.
A written complaint from a commercial grower triggers action under the new ordinance. Hajik”s investigators will only need to confirm that the trees in question have not been pruned after full bloom in order to investigate for pests. Hajik said talking to the owner to gain compliance is the first recourse. If no effort is made, his office can issue a 30-day warning before the trees can be removed and destroyed.
Hajik said area pear growers, pest control advisers and the Lake County Farm Bureau expressed concerns that pests found in unmanaged trees could weaken control measures used in neighboring commercial orchards and raise the cost of doing business.
“What happens is that puts pressure on their orchards to spray more, which means it costs more money to farm, and sometimes they can”t even sell their pears,” Hajik said.
Without the measure, the owner of the property on which problem trees were growing could appear before the board of supervisors to appeal an order to abate pests found. Hajik said no such action was ever taken, because property owners contacted previously were cooperative.
Existing ordinances only require growers to control fire blight, a bacteria that kills tree branches, and psylla, a bug that sucks juice out of young pear branches and can introduce disease that can kill an entire tree. The new measure will require control for any pest. Hajik said the most pressing concern for pear and apple trees is the coddling moth, an apple worm that can also attack pear and walnut trees.
Also, Hajik”s office is currently required to prove that ill-maintained trees are harboring pests in numbers significant enough to cause damage.
“I really don”t want to pursue grandma”s only pear tree in her back yard. In that situation, I would hope the growers wouldn”t go there if at all possible,” Hajik said.
Hajik said the UC San Francisco Extension offers pests control guidelines for property owners who have small groups of trees. Hajik said many of the complaints his office receives about problem trees are about groupings of between 10 and 12 trees.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
