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This page shall serve as the official listing of plant pests in accordance with South Carolina Code of Regulations Chapter 27 Article 10.

State Plant Regulatory Officials  (SPRO) are members of the National Plant Board, oversee state level pest detection and regulatory activities and coordinate survey activities between government agencies, public and private sector organizations. Find SPRO by State or by Region.

See related resource: Data Visualization Tools to explore plant and animal health management data and interactive story maps

This summer, the Vermont Lakes and Ponds Program is seeking volunteers to help monitor and collect information about lakes and ponds in the state. With over 800 lakes and ponds, volunteers are key to the success of the program’s lake monitoring efforts. Volunteers can be found statewide greeting lake visitors, inspecting boats, collecting water samples, tracking algal or cyanobacteria blooms, reporting aquatic invasive species, and more. For general information, interested parties are welcome to visit the volunteer webpage.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Plant Protection and Quarantine Program (USDA, APHIS, PPQ) and the plant health agencies in each of the 50 states, regulate the shipment of nursery and greenhouse stock in an effort to minimize the spread of harmful insects, diseases, and other pests. The Federal & State Quarantine Summaries is designed as a reference tool for nursery stock growers, brokers, purchasers, and others involved in the buying selling, and interstate transport of nursery and greenhouse plant crops. It outlines the basic quarantine and other plant health requirements of APHIS, all 50 states, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and Guam. The information presented here is designed as an aid to help users avoid costly delays, rejections of plant material shipments, and introduction of harmful pests into new areas.

Tests by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa have confirmed the presence of Asian, or longhorn tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, in Pennsylvania. An invasive species that congregates in large numbers and can cause anemia in livestock, the tick was discovered on a wild deer in Centre County. It is known to carry several diseases that infect hogs and cattle in Asia. So far, ticks examined in the U.S. do not carry any infectious pathogens. Native to East and Central Asia, the tick was originally identified in the U.S. in New Jersey, where it was found in large numbers in sheep in Mercer County in 2017. It has also been found in Arkansas, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia and Virginia.

State wildlife action plans outline the steps that are needed to conserve wildlife and habitat before they become more rare and more costly to protect. Taken as a whole, they present a national action agenda for preventing wildlife from becoming endangered.
See also: A national look at Species of Greatest Conservation Need as reported in State Wildlife Action Plans (DOI, USGS)

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proclamation in recognition and support of National Pollinator Week -- June 20–26, 2022. Pollinator species, such as bees, other insects, birds, and bats play a critical role in producing more than 100 crops grown in the United States. Honey bee pollination alone adds more than $18 billion in value to agricultural crops annually.

USDA also released its Annual Strategic Pollinator Priorities Report: 2022 [PDF, 1.8 MB] that outlines USDA pollinator research and programmatic priorities for the coming year.

Do you hike, ride, bird, camp, fish, or otherwise recreate in state parks, forests or wildlands? Lend YOUR eyes to help Maryland's biodiversity! The Maryland Natural Heritage Program designed Statewide Eyes to allow volunteers and researchers alike to collect more information about invasive plants on state lands quickly. Volunteers (like you!) use a free mobile application called the Mid-Atlantic Early Detection Network (MAEDN) to identify, photograph and map the location of invasive plants, focusing on ecologically significant sites.

This report reviews developments in state laws and regulations governing invasive species in eleven states. It finds that invasive species laws and regulations are often fragmented and incomplete and have developed primarily on a species-by-species basis in response to crisis. As a result, they often fail to address potential future invaders or close off known invasion pathways. Fortunately, states have begun regulating invasion pathways and identifying species that may become invasive in the future due to climate change or other factors. States are increasingly creating interagency councils and management plans to coordinate these novel invasive species responses.

Welcome to the Campaign Resources section for Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers!. This section provides resources to help achieve your goals of building awareness and increasing engagement. Resources include a graphics library, marketing showroom, and image library.

Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers is an ANS Task Force public awareness campaign intended to educate the public on aquatic nuisance species (ANS) and stop or reduce unintended spread of ANS to new habitat by recreational activities such as boating, fishing, swimming, waterfowl hunting, SCUBA diving or snorkeling, windsurfing, seaplane operations, personal watercraft use, and recreational bait harvesting. This campaign is supported by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Aquatic invasive species pose an ongoing threat to the environment, economy, recreation, and human health and safely. These species are a direct driver of biodiversity loss, yet also hinder economic development, serve as vectors of disease, decrease the aesthetic value of nature, and prevent recreational activities. Keep reading to learn more about these specific threats.