Hi Jim: USDA APHIS gave a presentation on this subject at the recent American Society of Horticultural Sciences annual meeting. Indeed they have chosen to implement the Australian Weed Risk Assessment Model which is predicated upon the existence of a national database of all plants currently grown in the country. The presenters want to set a minimum limit - say 3 growers for each taxon before it would make the list. They also want to ban any plant that has been listed as a weed anywhere in the World regardless of whether it is already in the USA and has not shown invasive tendencies in this country. At this time, they are implementing the protocol without a national database - in other words all plants will be subjected to a Weed Risk Assessment. When we evaluated different models for our use at CBG we found this model produced an excessive number of false positives - in the range of 58% - 87% of the taxa not capable of becoming invasive were denied entry in an effort to insure that no invasive plant is ever imported. From the speakers perspective this level of error was acceptable. Chicago Botanic Garden has led the botanic garden and arboretum community in developing software that will create an online comprehensive list of all taxa currently grown or that have been grown in botanic gardens and arboreta. We've proven the software works - now we need to expand the number of participants beyond the 16 American and two overseas participants. I've changed the business logic of the database to permit information about a taxon to be listed without an accession number after realizing that most smaller growers will not assign accession numbers to their collections. What's next? We need to refine the Portal to this information and that requires us to ask the folks that run Google Base to slightly modify 3 elements of their business logic to permit records to be sorted by scientific name, over a 1,000 records to be returned at one time, and add support for Mandarin. One of our overseas partners, Beijing Botanical Garden is working with us to create a translation protocol to translate all English records into Mandarin for use by Chinese scientists and all Mandarin records into English for our use. Over half of the ornamental plants grown in the USA originated from Chinese germplasm. Apparently the USDA APHIS has never kept a record of the plants that have been imported into the USA. The support of NARGS and PBS towards creating a national database (our botanic garden "PlantCollections" database has committed to providing data to the Flora of Cultivated Plants) is extremely important. Many thanks, Boyce Tankersley Director of Living Plant Documentation Chicago Botanic Garden 1000 Lake Cook Road Glencoe, IL 60022 tel: 847-835-6841 fax: 847-835-1635 email: btankers@chicagobotanic.org -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of J.E. Shields Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2008 8:28 PM To: IBSMembers; Pacific Bulb Society Subject: [pbs] Fwd: Establishing taxa as "present" For Your Information. Please read carefully, especially for future reference. Jim Shields >From: Joyce Fingerut <alpinegarden@comcast.net> >To: Dave Richards <dorichards@mango.zw>, > Ian Plenderleith <plen@portal.ca>, > Edward Buyarski <amprimsoc@hotmail.com>, > Ian Bainbridge <bainbridi@aol.com>, > Greg Bourke <sydneycarnivorous@iinet.net.au>, > Daryl Geoghegan <plants_man@bigpond.com>, > Carol Quinn <caroleq@bigpond.com>, > Mike Brown <clematiscorner@supanet.com>, > Anne Wright <barry.wright@onetel.net>, > Sue Haffner <sueh@zimmer.csufresno.edu>, > Philip Downs <panda.downs@actrix.co.nz>, > Leo Smit <elsumpn@chebucto.ns.ca>, > Jody Haynes <jhay@montgomerybotanical.org>, > Lars Høpfner <hoepfner@privat.dk>, > Morgan Smith <desertplantsocietyvan@hotmail.com>, > Tony Palmer <adpal@ihug.co.nz>, > Faye Brawner <fbrawnerwv@aol.com>, > Joyce Fingerut <alpinegarden@comcast.net>, > Gregg Miller <gregg@millergarden.org>, > Pat Lorenz <p.lorenz@sympatico.ca>, > Vojtech Holubec <holubec@vurv.cz>, > Jude & Michael Fanton <michel@seedsavers.net>, > Ghan Chee <davidghan@eol.ca>, > Marc Colombel <Marc.Colombel@wanadoo.fr>, > Will Plotner <gardens@molalla.net>, > Dell Sherk <dells@voicenet.com>, > Deborah Cole <dcthree@juno.com>, > Jim Shields <jshields@indy.net>, > Larry Diehl <ldiehl@wideopenwest.com>, > John van der Linde <vandal@iafrica.com>, > Chris Vlok <vlokac@wol.co.za>, > Malcolm McGregor <mmcg@mmcg.karoo.co.uk>, > Bob McFarlane <Denvrbob@aol.com>, > Alan Hill <alan.hill6@virgin.net>, > tommyhayes@esatclear.ie, > Ray Stephenson <ray@sedumray.ndo.co.uk>, > Leslie Milde <meribush@aol.com>, > "Berit K. Ostby / Eivind Damsleth" <edamsleth@sensewave.com>, > Scott Cook <gardener272000@yahoo.co.uk>, > e.j.gouda@bio.uu.nl, > Ron Lance <ronl@chimneyrockpark.com>, > Tim Marshall <plantsman@tiscali.co.uk>, > Maureen Janson <herblady_63090@yahoo.com>, > Murray McCallister <muznbev@aol.com.au>, > Richard Laurie <allison.laurie@sympatico.ca>, > matilija@verizon.net, > Pat Toolan <pattoolan1@bigpond.com>, > Clive Lane <clive_lane_cgs@hotmail.com>, > Peter Shalit <gezprez@gmail.com>, > Tom Cox <coxarb@bellsouth.net>, > Dorothy Minors <dot@pilgrimsrest.demon.co.uk>, > Fleur Pavlidis <mgssec@hol.gr>, > Pat Toolan <pattoolan2@bigpond.com>, > Jeremy Spon <jeremyspon@waitrose.com>, > Diane Clement <diane@mdclement.orangehome.co.uk> >Subject: Establishing taxa as "present" >Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:20:37 -0400 > > >To the members of IHSEA - > >Once the latest standard from NAPPO (RSPM No. 32) is published in October, >it will require that the participating countries of Canada, Mexico, and >the United States establish a screening process for all new plant taxa, >which will effectively act as an import barrier into those countries. >Eventually, this RSPM will be the basis of a similar international >standard, under the IPPC and will affect all countries (or at least those >that are signatories to the IPPC, close to 200 nations). >The standard demands that countries enact new regulations/legislation >requiring screening on all future introductions for potential >invasiveness. The screening process would be a form of Weed Risk >Assessment which would have to be completed on any taxon that is not >already present in the country before it will be permitted to enter (be >imported). > >If horticultural societies are to continue to operate seed exchanges, they >must be capable of importing seeds from donors in other countries, as well >as distributing their seeds to members in other countries. Therefore, it >is crucial that we make certain that each country has the largest possible >database of plants as already existing within its borders. Every >specialist plant society must work to see that all its taxa are considered >to be "already present" in its own, and possibly other, >countries. National governmental plant protection organizations (like >APHIS in the US, DEFRA in the UK, CFIA in Canada.....) must be persuaded >that although these plants are not present in commercial Big Box >quantities, they are being grown in both private and public gardens and >offered by the endless array of small specialist nurseries. >(Handling the proposed screening of new items will be another problem, for >another day) > >In the United States, a new project to write a comprehensive "Flora of >Cultivated Plants" is beginning, headed by Dr. Tom Elias, Director of the >National Arboretum. Fortunately, he sees the point of including plants >listed in seed exchanges. He is interested in the seed database that NARGS >currently operates, and my guess is that he would also include the taxa >from other organizations' databases, so that as many genera could be >covered in as great a depth as possible. >-> If other US-based societies would be interested in having the plants in >their seed exchange databases included in the Flora, please contact me. > >My personal feeling is also that, since so many societies based in other >countries have US members, there is a fair chance that the taxa listed in >their exchanges have made their way into US gardens and nurseries. >Therefore, taxa listed on almost any seedlist should be considered as >being cultivated in the US. >-> If I can move the Flora's committee to this way of thinking about the >globalness of horticulture, would other societies, in other countries >(especially Canada and the UK), be interested in having their databases >included? > >I am on the contact list for this project and will attend its next meeting >(not yet scheduled). It would ultimately be helpful to everyone if I can >take a complete record of ALL the plants that we assume are being grown >in the US.....from all sources. Let me hear your thoughts on this >issue. Please contact me with questions - and, especially offers - either >through this list or privately. > >Thank you - >Joyce > > >Joyce Fingerut > >Government Liaison, > >North American Rock Garden Society > ><http://www.nargs.org/>http://www.nargs.org/ > >Member organization: > >International Horticultural Seed Exchange Advocacy (IHSEA) ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/