Cut flowers and cut foliage were deregulated for glassy-winged sharpshooter following a scientific review which determined that cut plant material does not present a significant risk of spreading the pest. The scientific review determined that cut flower and cut foliage pest management, harvesting, processing, and shipping practices reduce to insignificant the likelihood of live glassy-winged sharpshooters being present in a shipment. Further safeguards are provided in that cut plants will not provide a source of nourishment to sharpshooters. A footnote has been added to the host list to implement this change.

On April 10, 2000, Secretary Lyons approved a change in the pest rating of glassy-winged sharpshooter from "C" to "B," based on the recommendation of a CDFA science panel. Because the pest has been determined to have a limited distribution and to cause serious economic impacts, nursery stock shipped from the known infested area must now be completely free of the pest. However, to reduce the regulatory burden on affected nursery operators, emergency regulations have been adopted to allow "commercially clean" nursery stock (i.e., substantially but not completely free of the pest) to move within the infested area.
(See the CDFA press release for more information.)

Several uninfested counties now require that nursery stock from infested counties be held for inspection at destination. These hold-for-inspection ("blue tag") requirements may be relaxed for nurseries under compliance agreement for producing nursery stock free of glassy-winged sharpshooter.

Recommendations are being developed for assessing and addressing the risk of spreading glassy-winged sharpshooter in bulk shipments of grapes.

Secretary Lyons appointed Robert L. Wynn, Jr. as Interim Statewide Coordinator for the state's glassy-winged sharpshooter/Pierce's disease program. Mr. Wynn is the Director of CDFA's Division of Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services. CDFA will soon be advertising for a permanent statewide coordinator. The position will be exempt from civil service and report to the Secretary.

Funding to combat glassy-winged sharpshooter and Pierce's disease is being proposed in Senate Bill 671, authored by Senator Wesley Chesbro and supported by Governor Gray Davis. (See the press release from Governor Gray Davis for more information.)
A $500,000 research partnership was established to enable an international collaborative effort to sequence the genome of the Pierce's disease bacterium. The effort is expected to take less than a year to complete and will help scientists develop strategies for combating the disease. Collaborative funding is now being discussed by the Sao Paulo State Research Foundation in Brazil, the USDA, the American Vineyard Foundation, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
$1 million per year for three years is available for research thanks to Assembly Bill 1232, authored by Assembly Member Dennis Cardoza and signed by Governor Gray Davis in October 1999.

Survey activities are underway in several counties to determine if glassy-winged sharpshooter is present. Activities consist of visual survey and trapping of high-risk areas.

Several counties are developing glassy-winged sharpshooter/Pierce's disease pest management areas. CDFA is providing expertise and a protocol that can be tailored to each area. CDFA also will coordinate the efforts of the different areas and approve all final plans to ensure consistency in each area's approach.

CDFA biocontrol specialists are searching the native range of the glassy-winged sharpshooter for natural enemies to use in controlling the pest in California. Small parasitic wasps have been recovered from collected egg masses and are being studied in the laboratory. A wasp that attacks sharpshooter egg masses has been found at some locations in California.