Current through August, 2024
Section I
Statement of Concerns
Whereas, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food
& Markets having found that certain noxious weeds out compete and
displace plants in natural ecosystems and managed lands; and
Whereas, competition and displacement of plants by
certain noxious weeds has significant environmental, agricultural and
economic impacts; and
Whereas, it has been determined to be in the best
interest of the State of Vermont to regulate the importation,
movement, sale, possession, cultivation and / or distribution of
certain noxious weeds:
Therefore, the State of Vermont is hereby
establishing this noxious weed quarantine regulation in order to
protect Vermont's environmental and economic resources.
Section II Definitions
"Class A Noxious Weed" means any noxious weed that is
not native to the State, not currently known to occur in the State on
the date of listing, and poses a serious threat to the State.
"Class B Noxious Weed" means any noxious weed that is
not native to the state, is of limited distribution statewide, and
poses a serious threat to the State, or any other designated noxious
weed being managed to reduce its occurrence and impact in the State,
including those on the Federal Noxious Weed List (
7 C.F.R.
360.200) .
"Committee" means the Vermont invasive exotic plant
advisory committee appointed by the secretary.
"Cultivate" means to intentionally promote or improve
the growth of a plant by labor and attention.
"Distribute" means the intentional act of
transporting or disseminating plant material for the purposes of
spreading or establishing a new location for said materials, whether
for commercial gain or not, in knowing violation of this rule.
"Move" means the intentional act of transporting
plant material from the property where said material originates,
whether for commercial gain or not, in knowing violation of this
rule.
"Noxious Weed" means any plant in any stage of
development, including all current and subsequent subspecies,
varieties, and cultivars, and parasitic plants whose presence,
whether direct or indirect, is detrimental to the environment, crops
or other desirable plants, livestock, land, or other property, or is
injurious to the public health or the economy generally.
"Plant" means trees, shrubs, and vines; forage,
fiber, and cereal plants; cuttings, grafts, scions, buds and lumber;
fruit, vegetables, roots, bulbs, seeds and wood; other propagative
materials; and all other plants, parts of plants, and plant
products.
"Possession" means to intentionally grow, manage or
cultivate through planting, pruning, watering, fertilization,
weeding, propagation, or any other means that promotes the growth of
the noxious weed. This does not include the incidental or
unintentional occurrence of a noxious weed on wild or managed
land.
"Secretary" means the Secretary of the Agency of
Agriculture, Food and Markets, or his or her designee.
Section III Statutory
Authority
This rule is established by the Agency of
Agriculture, Food and Markets under the authority granted to the
secretary at 6 V.S.A., Chapter 84, 'Pest Survey, Detection and
Management', and
6
V.S.A., §
1(a)(10), 'General
powers of agency; secretary of agriculture, food and markets.
Section IV Designation
as a Noxious Weed
Designation or deletions of noxious weeds shall occur
through the following procedure and criteria:
(A) The secretary shall establish,
with input from the committee, a list of prohibited noxious
weeds.
(B) The prohibited
weed lists (Class A and Class B lists as appears in Appendix A) will
be reviewed annually by the committee to make recommendations for
listed species additions or deletions.
(C) Completion and review of pest
risk assessments (described below):
1. Evaluation of real or potential
environmental, economic or other impacts of species prohibitions,
and
2. other activities
as deemed necessary by the committee to provide a comprehensive and
defensible rationale for additions or deletions to the lists,
and
3. review of presence
of established weed populations, and eradication and control efforts,
and the success of these efforts.
(D) The following conditions shall
be met for a plant or plant product to be designated as a Class A or
B Noxious Weed:
1. As determined by
a pest risk assessment, a prohibited noxious weed must pose an actual
or anticipated threat to a substantial agricultural, forestry or
environmental interest and / or the general public;
2. Prohibiting a specified noxious
weed is likely to contribute to the objective of preventing
introduction or for limiting the spread and / or severity of the
noxious weeds impact to the agricultural, forestry or environmental
interest, or the general public;
3. No substitute or alternative
mitigating action will accomplish the same pest prevention purpose;
and
4. The economic
and/or environmental benefits of prohibiting a specified noxious weed
outweigh the economic and/or environmental benefits associated with
not prohibiting the noxious weed.
(E) The following factors shall be
used to evaluate whether a plant or plant product has satisfied the
conditions for designation as a Class A or Class B Noxious Weed:
1. Native origin of the
plant;
2. Known
distribution;
3.
Mechanism and potential for spread to and within Vermont;
4. Past, current and potential
environmental, economic and human health impacts;
5. Feasibility of control and
spread prevention;
6.
Regional and national perspective;
7. Designation as a federal noxious
weed; and / or
8. Other
pertinent factors as determined by the committee.
(F) At the secretary's
discretion, the noxious weeds recommended by the committee will be
added to either the A or B list of prohibited species, rejected for
addition, or sent back to the committee for further evaluation and
review.
Section
V Prohibitions
(A) The
movement, sale, possession, cultivation, and / or distribution of
Class A Noxious Weeds designated in Appendix A of this rule is
prohibited.
(B) The sale,
movement, and / or distribution of Class B Noxious Weeds designated
in Appendix A of this rule is prohibited.
(C) Violation of any of these
prohibitions may result in:
1. The
issuance of cease and desist orders; and / or,
2. Temporary or permanent
injunctions; and / or,
3.
Administrative penalties as specified in 6 V.S.A., Chapter 1, Section
15,
and Chapter 84, Sections 1037 and 1038.
(D) Prohibitions on possession,
cultivation, movement and distribution of plants addressed in V.S.A.
titles other than Title 6 remain applicable.
Section VI Variances and Exemptions
(A) A variance may be granted by
the secretary to allow for the movement, possession and field
experimentation of noxious weeds for scientific, educational, or
other purposes under such conditions as may be prescribed by the
secretary. Any variance(s) shall be in the form of a permit issued by
the secretary.
(B)
Transportation of any Class A or B Noxious weed on any road or
highway of the state is exempt if:
1. For disposal as part of a
management control activity; or
2. For the purpose of identifying a
species or reporting the presence of a species, and the Class A or B
Noxious weed is in a sealed container.
(C) Preserved specimens in the form
of herbaria or other preservation means are exempt.
(D) Varieties, cultivars, hybrids
and/or subspecies that have been shown through scientific research
and analysis not to be invasive are exempt. Those cultivars and
varieties so demonstrated as non-invasive are listed in the attached
Appendix B.
(E) Except as
described in (B) above, permits for movement and disposal of listed
weeds and associated material (soil, debris, etc.) may be granted by
the secretary for the purposes of weed control or infestation
mitigation efforts after review of the proposed procedures and
disposal site(s). In granting permits, specific consideration shall
be made regarding the location of disposal and monitoring sites and
whether the movement and disposal effort(s) accomplishes the general
intent of reducing the overall impact of noxious weeds on the
environment.
Appendix A Designated Noxious Weeds
(A) Class A Noxious Weeds.
(1) Cabomba caroliniana
(fanwort)
(2) Egeria
densa (Brazalian elodea)
(3) Hydrilla verticillata
(hydrilla)
(4) Hygrophila
polysperma (east Indian hygrophila)
(5) Myriophyllum aquaticum (parrot
feather)
(6) Myriophyllum
heterophyllum (variable-leaved milfoil)
(7) Salvinia auriculata (giant
salvinia)
(8) Salvinia
biloba (giant salvinia)
(9) Salvinia herzogii (giant
salvinia)
(10) Salvinia
molesta (giant salvinia)
(11) Vincetoxicum hirundinaria
(syn: Cynanchum rossicum) (pale swallow-wort)
(B) Class B Noxious Weeds.
(1) Aegopodium podagraria
(goutweed/bishopsweed/snow-on-the-mountain)
(2) Ailanthus altissima
(tree-of-heaven)
(3)
Alliaria petiolata ( A. officinalis) (garlic mustard)
(4) Butomus umbellatus (flowering
rush)
(5) Celastrus
orbiculatus (oriental bittersweet)
(6) Fallopia japonica (syn:
Polygonum cuspidatum) (Japanese knotweed)
(7) Hydrocharis morsus-ranae
(frogbit)
(8) Lonicera x
bella (bell honeysuckle)
(9) Lonicera japonica (Japanese
honeysuckle)
(10)
Lonicera maackii (amur honeysuckle)
(11) Lonicera morrowii (Morrow
honeysuckle)
(12)
Lonicera tatarica (Tatarian honeysuckle)
(13) Lythrum salicaria (purple
loosestrife)
(14)
Myriophyllum spicatum (Eurasian watermilfoil)
(15) Nymphoides peltata (yellow
floating heart)
(16)
Phragmites australis ssp. australis (common reed)
(17) Potamogeton crispus (curly
leaf pondweed)
(18)
Rhamnus cathartica (common buckthorn)
(19) Rhamnus frangula (syn:
Frangula alnus) (glossy buckthorn)
(20) Trapa natans (water
chestnut)
(21)
Vincetoxicum nigrum (syn: Cynanchum louiseae) (black
swallow-wort)
(22) Acer
platanoides (Norway maple) [* ]
(23) Berberis vulgaris (common
barberry) [* ]
(24)
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry) [* ]
(25) Euonymous alatus (burningbush)
[* ]
(26) Iris
pseudacorus (yellow flag iris) [* ]
(27) Acer ginnala (Amur maple) [*
]
(28) Najas minor
(European naiad) [* ]
(29) All weeds listed in
7 C.F.R.
360.200 as amended, which is hereby
incorporated by reference including subsequent amendments and
editions.
[* ]Specimens of these species acquired prior to the
final filing of this rule may be sold or offered for sale until July
1, 2013.
Appendix B Subspecies, Hybrids, Varieties and
Cultivars Exempted Under Rule
(1) Rhamnus frangula (syn: Frangula
alnus) "Asplenifolia"
(2) Rhamnus frangula (syn: Frangula
alnus) "Fine Line"
