As the winter season is upon us, this is a good time to review the Frequently Asked Questions for nursery license holders.

When conducting inspections, inspectors often run into situations licensees may not know are part of the responsibilities of a license holder.  Below are some common situations licensees should be aware of:

Nursery Grower license holders also need a Nursery Dealer license if they bring in and sell over $250 worth of finished stock from outside sources.

Landscape Contractors generally need a Nursery Dealer license if they invoice customers for the cost of [perennial] landscape plant material that they then install.

Plants being offered for retail sale must be labeled correctly with either common or botanical name.

Nursery Dealers need to watch for plants labeled as “Perennial” by a supplier. Stock must be able to survive a Wisconsin winter outdoors to be considered a Wisconsin “Perennial”—if it cannot, it is an “Annual”. National retailers are likely to encounter this when suppliers use generic labeling for plants sold across a broad geographic swath of the country.

NR40 invasive plants that are regulated as Prohibited or Restricted by law cannot be sold.  Prohibited plants also can not be possessed, and they must be controlled on your property. NR40 plants are sometimes included in an assorted “package” purchased through a supplier. This is commonly encountered with packages for assorted groundcovers, vines and aquatic plants for ponds. Know what you’re getting and do not buy invasives.

Know when a Compliance Agreement is required. Bringing in hemlock grown in areas of the country known to have hemlock woolly adelgid is one example of when an agreement is needed, in order to comply with that pest quarantine.

Keep, and make available, invoices and shipping papers for three years. When a pest or disease of concern is detected, DATCP may contact the shipping state/grower and need to locate stock sold to the consumer.

Licensees must notify DATCP when adding a new location. This includes a location where stock is being grown, held for sale or offered for retail sale. It also includes property you may be leasing to grow and harvest Christmas trees or nursery stock.

This winter, we will be diving into the different compliance agreements you may need depending on your nursery operation. A compliance agreement is a written agreement between a person engaged in growing, handling, or moving regulated articles (i.e., plants and plant parts) and a governmental agency to allow for limited movement of such articles, provided that risk mitigation measures are taken. Compliance agreements outline pest-specific requirements that must be met depending on the origin of the articles and the destination. Federally regulated plant pests and diseases require a compliance agreement with USDA-APHIS, while state agreements are with Wisconsin DATCP. Compliance agreements are valid for one year and must be renewed annually, as needed. There is no fee to enter into a compliance agreement. You can review Japanese Beetle compliance agreements in the December WGO.

Spongy Moth Compliance Agreements

In Wisconsin, 52 out of 72 counties are under State and Federal Quarantine for spongy moth (the insect formerly known as gypsy moth). Businesses who regularly ship nursery stock, Christmas trees, logs, firewood and other wood products outside the quarantine zone need to obtain a spongy moth Compliance Agreement each year. The Compliance Agreement spells out conditions that must be followed when growing, handling and moving regulated articles to ensure these plant products are not carrying any spongy moth life stage to a new, non-quarantined area.

A state Compliance Agreement must be obtained if a business ships regulated articles from a spongy moth quarantined county to a non-quarantined county in Wisconsin. A federal Compliance Agreement must be obtained if a business ships regulated articles from a quarantine county to any state located outside of the federal spongy moth quarantine. USDA – APHIS provides these agreements, and DATCP signs off on them.

Businesses who currently hold a State of Wisconsin Spongy Moth Compliance Agreement will receive a renewal notice in January. Contact Jennifer Oestreich at Jennifer.Oestreich@Wisconsin.gov or (715) 701-1375 with questions, or to sign up for a state Spongy Moth Compliance Agreement. Contact Wisconsin USDA-APHIS-PPQ staff to sign up for or to renew a federal Spongy Moth Compliance Agreement (federal spongy moth Compliance Agreements are renewed throughout the year, based on prior expiration date).

Nursery and Christmas tree licenses for this growing season (License Year 2023) will expire on February 20, 2023. Expiration notices to renew your license for the next growing season (License Year 2024) were emailed out to current license holders the week of November 7^th. Paper notices were mailed out at the end of November. Please let us know of any email or address changes since your last renewal. License renewals can be completed online by using MyDATCP portal, and licensees can self-print licenses for the first time this year.  If you need assistance getting into your account, you can email us at datcpnursery@wisconsin.gov or call us at (608) 224-4574.

Please let us know if you are no longer in business so that we may close your license. This avoids any enforcement actions, which may occur for entities who fail to contact us or renew by the February 20, 2023 deadline.

Watch the short video tutorial to walk you through the online renewal process. Or for more information, visit the Nursery and Christmas tree licensing webpage, email DATCPnursery@wi.gov or call (608) 224-4574. 

DATCP's Plant Protection Section has two open full-time Plant Pest & Disease Specialist positions. Both positions are responsible for inspecting assigned nurseries, Christmas trees, logs and other plant products for insects, diseases and other pests in Wisconsin. One position is home-based in northern Wisconsin, and the other is based in the DATCP Prairie Oaks state office building in Madison, WI. Recruitments are expected to be posted online later this week.

DATCP also has Student Diversity Internship Program positions for CAPS survey (Position 115107) and PIB Lab (Position 115106) technicians posted on DPM website through February 13.  Our Section also plans to recruit a seasonal limited term employment (LTE) position to help with nursery inspections in SE Wisconsin.  Please watch for our postings on wisc.jobs, and apply or share job announcements with any outstanding candidates you know.

Here are some upcoming webinar series or websites with prerecorded webinars if you have some downtime this winter:

Michigan State University Extension: Ready, Set, GROW! Christmas Tree Plantation Establishment Webinar Series, Thursdays, Feb. 2-23.

New York State Integrated Pest Management: What’s Bugging You? first Friday of each month, 11-11:30.

Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Association: Winter Webinar series, 6pm CST.

University of Wisconsin Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic: Plant Disease Talks, monthly, 6:30-9pm CST.
Grower Talks Webinars
Search the U.S. Cooperative Extension system for articles or webinars.
First Detector Online Courses | First Detector
Urban Forestry Today Webinar Archives
DATCP Spongy Moth Identification Training

And if you like What’s Growing On? here are a few other newsletters you can check out: Buckeye Yard & Garden online (BYGL), e-GRO (Electronic Grower Resources Online), Kansas State University – Horticulture Newsletter, Morton Arboretum – Plant Health Care Report, Michigan State University Extension – Nursery & Christmas Trees, National Plant Diagnostic Network – NPDN Communicator (Note: this list is incomplete; there are many good and reputable resources out there.)