January 27, 2015

Mr. Andrew Alvarez, Director

VDACS, Division of Consumer Protection

P.O. Box 1163

Richmond, VA 23218

RE: Recommendations for Regulations for Enforcement of Noxious Weed Law 2 VAC 5-317

Dear Mr. Alvarez:

The Arlington County Urban Forestry Commission has reviewed the proposed regulations for enforcement of noxious weed laws. The Commission submits the following comments to reiterate and expand upon its previous comments on the proposed regulations. We appreciate this opportunity to opine on the proposal from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

While the Commission is pleased that the Department has proposed to expand the list of noxious weeds and to include at least one plant that, at some point, has been sold in Virginia, we find that the modest expansions of the list Tier 1 and Tier 2 species fail to acknowledge the tremendous economic and environmental damage non-native invasive species inflict on agricultural and natural areas in Virginia. In addition, the failure to include any enforcement provisions represents a failure to address the seriousness and increasing long-term costs imposed by non-native, invasive plants in Virginia.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is far behind other states and other localities that have well-developed noxious weed laws and regulations. The longer we wait to develop effective controls of non-native invasive species, the more severe will be the economic and environmental damage and the higher the resulting costs to remedy the impacts.

We urge that the proposed regulations be redrafted to include a more comprehensive list of non-native invasive species based on the Department of Conservation and Recreation list of invasive alien plant species in our state. Species on this list currently not offered for sale should be banned from future sales; plants on this list that are currently for sale should be phased out from sale over time. If the Commonwealth of Virginia is unwilling to take such steps to control non-native invasives species, then local jurisdictions should be permitted to undertake eradication and suppression efforts.

In sum, we believe that the regulation as currently drafted is wholly inadequate and will result in very little impact on an increasingly urgent problem.

Sincerely,

Dean Amel, Chair

Arlington County Urban Forestry Commission