Today (10/21) at midnight EST is the deadline to submit comments on the US government's proposed plant import regulations, which would create a new category of banned plants that have not yet been evaluated for potential pest status (sometimes referred to as "NAPPRA"). Depending on how it is implemented, it could ban a lot of the seed and bulb importing we do today. There are about 250 comments on the government's comment site now, almost 100% of them in favor of the regulations. In fact, the only dissenting voice I could find was Tony Avent's. Many of the comments are from native plant societies, and are advocating a very draconian version of the regulations. For example, the Virginia Native Plant Society suggests a blanket ban on any plant that does not have a 50-year documented record of being grown outside its native habitat. That would ban many of the plants in our collections today. I won't bother to re-hash the things that I wrote about these regulations before, but you can influence the rule-making process by submitting a comment. In my experience, the government does listen to private comments, and they specifically asked for feedback from private plant groups like PBS. As a PBS member, you are qualified to respond. I just posted a comment. So you know, what I suggested was that the government: --Create a definition for "in cultivation" that includes anything that is currently in cultivation in the US, or has been in the past. --Exempt the small lots of seed program from the regulations (because it has little risk of introducing pests, and the exemption would allow private societies to continue their seed exchanges, which are important to them financially). --Collect information from plant collectors on the invasiveness of imported species. Contact me privately if you want a copy of my comments. If you want to comment, use this web address: http://regulations.gov/search/Regs/… Click on "submit a comment" In "keyword" type: aphis-2006-0011 You will see a list of comments. Click on one of the small icons next to them labeled "submit a comment" This will open a window to submit a comment on that particular comment. Don't do that. Instead, click on the box labeled "Comment directly on proposed rules." This will open a form that lets you comment on the rules themselves. If you want to write something long, you can submit a file. But short comments can be typed directly into the form. Thanks, Mike San Jose, CA