02/25/05 A.M.Q.A. modification?

02/25/05 A.M.Q.A. modification?

The Washington State Department of Agriculture is set to hold a public hearing sometime in late March on its latest proposed apple maggot quarantine area & a portion of western Yakima County. But while that proposed designation is gaining the press due to its location near the center of the Washington State apple industry, it is not the only A.M.Q.A. under discussion at the public meeting. W.S.D.A. is also considering modifying last year's area set for Kittitas County. Mike Willett of the Northwest Horticultural Council explains that all but a six mile area in the Southeast portion of Kittitas County was slapped with the A.M.Q.A. designation. The A.M.Q.A. free zone was in an area of commercial fruit orchards isolated by geographic and biological barriers from apple maggot infestation. WILLETT: This quarantine that's proposed for the 2005 growing season will essentially quarantine the northern and western parts of Kittitas County and leave the southeast corner of the county as an apple maggot free area, allowing the commercial growers in those areas to move fruit much more freely. That also means areas growing commercial fruit far enough away from apple maggot infestation should have an easier time moving fruit to foreign trading partners who demand tough phytosanitary standards when it comes to apple maggot.
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