143 



APHIS" draft regulations do not take adequate steps to ensure that pesLs so transported are found 

 and killed before they can spread to our forests or landscape plantings. 



APHIS relics far too much on importers' declarations rather than on inspection and certification 

 by trained phytosanitary officers in the country of origin and in U.S. ports. 



Finally, APHIS should institute user fees to cover the cost of implementing these necessary 

 precautions. Introduction of additional damaging tree pests will harm the interests of all who use 

 the forest. Private as well as public forests will be affected. Those who profit from importing raw 

 wood and other materials which may transport forest pests should contribute to the necessary 

 costs of protecting our irreplaceable forests from further harm. 



Nor is adequate regulation of raw wood imports sufficient to prevent the introduction of costly 

 pests. The table below lists damaging pests known or suspected to have been introduced on 

 horticultural stock. 



EXOTIC PESTS OF TREES PROBABLY INTRODUCED ON 

 NURSERY STOCK 



An effective program to curtail imports of new forest pests would include studies by APHIS and 

 Forest Service personnel of virulent diseases and arthropods in their native countries so that they 

 could apply that knowledge to erect barriers to those pests' introduction. Such knowledge would 

 also allow scientists to devise more effective strategies to combat pests when they evade exclusion 

 programs and are introduced (Boyce 1961). 



