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The Legislative Service Commission staff updates the Revised Code on an ongoing basis, as it completes its act review of enacted legislation. Updates may be slower during some times of the year, depending on the volume of enacted legislation.

Chapter 927 | Nursery Stock; Plant Pests

 
 
 
Section
Section 927.39 | Equipment and supplies.
 

(A) As used in this section and in sections 927.40 to 927.42 of the Revised Code:

(1) "Pest" has the same meaning as in section 927.51 of the Revised Code.

(2) "Quarantined area" means an area that is quarantined by the director of agriculture under section 927.71 of the Revised Code or by the United States department of agriculture.

(B) Counties, townships, and municipal corporations may, upon the vote of the board of county commissioners, the board of township trustees, or the legislative authority of any municipal corporation, purchase or rent equipment and may purchase supplies designed to combat a pest for which a quarantined area is established and may contract for the hire of necessary employees to operate such equipment and carry out sections 927.39 to 927.42 of the Revised Code. Payment for such equipment or its use, supplies, and wages as are contracted for may be provided out of the general fund of such subdivision.

Any two or more counties, townships, municipal corporations, or any combination of such subdivisions, may jointly contract for the purchase or renting of such equipment, the purchase of such supplies, and for the hiring of such employees to conduct a joint effort to combat a pest for which a quarantined area is established; the payment for such equipment, supplies, and labor may be made jointly, in such proportions as the board of county commissioners, the board of township trustees, or the legislative authority of a municipal corporation may agree upon, out of the general fund of any such subdivision.

Section 927.40 | Inspection for disease.
 

The board of county commissioners, board of township trustees, or legislative authority of a municipal corporation may authorize an agent to enter upon any lands in a quarantined area within the subdivisions for the sole purpose of inspecting such lands for the existence of the pest for which the quarantined area has been established. Such powers of inspection may be exercised by any such subdivision, through its agent, solely to prepare a campaign within the subdivision against a pest for which a quarantined area is established.

Section 927.41 | Treatment of diseased trees.
 

Upon the purchase or rental of equipment and the purchase of supplies to combat a pest for which a quarantined area is established, the agents of the board of county commissioners, board of township trustees, or legislative authority of a municipal corporation may contact the owners of land in the quarantined area within the subdivision, to obtain permission to enter upon such lands to combat that pest. After obtaining such permission, such agents may enter upon such land and combat that pest as the owner agrees, and the board of county commissioners, board of township trustees, or legislative authority of the municipal corporation may charge fees for such efforts as will cover the actual costs of the efforts.

In the same manner, plants that are dead or dying from a pest may be removed or completely destroyed at the cost of the landowner.

Section 927.42 | Assistance of department of agriculture - issuance of securities.
 

(A) The board of county commissioners, the board of township trustees, or the legislative authority of any municipal corporation may obtain the assistance of the department of agriculture or the United States department of agriculture upon any problem that arises in connection with combating dutch elm disease and phloem necrosis.

(B) If the board of county commissioners, the board of township trustees, or the legislative authority of a municipal corporation issues general obligation securities under division (A)(4) of section 133.12 of the Revised Code, that board of county commissioners, board of township trustees, or legislative authority, whichever is applicable, shall do both of the following:

(1) Notify the director of agriculture of that fact;

(2) Coordinate and comply with the protocols and directives established by the director with respect to the quarantined area or the pest for which a quarantined area is established.

Section 927.51 | Plants and nursery stock definitions.
 

As used in sections 927.51 to 927.73 of the Revised Code:

(A) "Collected plant" means any plant dug or gathered from any wood lot, field, forest, or any other location in which such a plant is found growing in its native habitat.

(B) "Collector" means any person who collects, for sale, plants from wood lots, fields, forests, or other native habitat.

(C) "Dealer" means any person other than a nurseryman who offers for sale, sells, or distributes nursery stock, either exclusively or in connection with other merchandise, in or from any nursery, store, sales ground, stand, lot, truck, railway car, or other vehicle. "Dealer" includes any landscaper who sells or offers for sale nursery stock as a part of a grounds improvement project that may involve the installation of such plants.

(D) "Hardy," when applied to plants and bulbs, whether wild or cultivated, means capable of surviving the normal winter temperatures of this state.

(E) "Host" means any plant or plant product from which any pest derives its food supply, or upon which it depends for its well being or to complete any part of its life cycle.

(F) "Infested" means containing or harboring one or more pests or infected with one or more pests.

(G) "Nursery" means any grounds or premises on or in which nursery stock is propagated or grown for sale.

(H) "Nurseryman" means a person who owns, leases, manages, or is in charge of a nursery.

(I) "Nursery stock" means:

(1) Any hardy tree, shrub, plant, or bulb, whether wild or cultivated, except turfgrass, and any cutting, graft, scion, or bud thereof;

(2) Any nonhardy plant, or plant part, that is to be offered for sale in any state that requires inspection and certification of the plant or plant part as a condition of entrance therein.

(J) "Person" means any corporation, company, society, association, partnership, individual or combination of individuals, institution, park, or any public agency administered by the state or any subdivision of the state.

(K) "Pest" means any insect, mite, nematode, bacteria, fungus, virus, parasitic plant, or any other organism or any stage of any such organism that causes, or is capable of causing, injury, disease, or damage to any plant, plant part, or plant product.

(L) "Place of business" means each separate location from which nursery stock is sold, offered for sale, or distributed.

(M) "Intensive production area" means a place where nursery stock is propagated or grown using greenhouses, liner beds, lath beds, or containers.

(N) "Nonintensive production area" means any place where nursery stock is propagated or grown as field stock.

(O) "Forced floral plants" means plants with desirable flower characteristics in which the bloom is artificially induced at an unnatural time of the year.

Section 927.52 | Rules for plants and nursery stock.
 

(A) The director of agriculture shall adopt and enforce any rules that are necessary to carry out sections 927.51 to 927.73 of the Revised Code.

(B) The director may revoke, suspend, or refuse to issue any nursery certificate or dealer's license for any violation of sections 927.51 to 927.71 of the Revised Code, or of any rules adopted under those sections.

(C) The director may publish reports describing nursery inspection and pest control operations authorized by sections 927.51 to 927.71 of the Revised Code.

Section 927.521 | Effect of child support default on license, certificate or permit.
 

On receipt of a notice pursuant to section 3123.43 of the Revised Code, the director of agriculture shall comply with sections 3123.41 to 3123.50 of the Revised Code and any applicable rules adopted under section 3123.63 of the Revised Code with respect to a license, certificate, or permit issued pursuant to this chapter.

Section 927.53 | License fees.
 

(A) Each collector or dealer who sells, offers, or exposes for sale, or distributes nursery stock within this state, or ships nursery stock to other states, shall pay an annual license fee of one hundred twenty-five dollars to the director of agriculture for each place of business the collector or dealer operates.

(B)(1) Each dealer shall furnish the director, annually, an affidavit that the dealer will buy and sell only nursery stock which has been inspected and certified by an official state or federal inspector.

(2) Each dealer's license expires on the thirty-first day of December of each year. Each licensed dealer shall apply for renewal of the dealer's license prior to the first day of January of each year and in accordance with the standard renewal procedure of sections 4745.01 to 4745.03 of the Revised Code.

(C) Each licensed nurseryperson shall post conspicuously in the nurseryperson's principal place of business, the certificate which is issued to the nurseryperson in accordance with section 927.61 of the Revised Code.

(D) Each licensed nurseryperson, or dealer, shall post conspicuously in each place of business, each certificate or license which is issued to the nurseryperson or dealer in compliance with this section or section 927.61 of the Revised Code.

(E)(1) Each nurseryperson who produces, sells, offers for sale, or distributes woody nursery stock within the state, or ships woody nursery stock to other states, shall pay to the director an annual inspection fee of one hundred dollars plus eleven dollars per acre, or fraction thereof, of growing nursery stock in intensive production areas and seven dollars per acre, or fraction thereof, of growing nursery stock in nonintensive production areas, as applicable.

(2) Each nurseryperson who limits production and sales of nursery stock to brambles, herbaceous, perennial, and other nonwoody plants, shall pay to the director an inspection fee of one hundred dollars, plus eleven dollars per acre, or fraction thereof, of growing nursery stock in intensive and nonintensive production areas.

(F) The fees collected under this section shall be credited to the plant pest program fund created in section 927.54 of the Revised Code.

Section 927.54 | Plant pest program fund.
 

The plant pest program fund is hereby created in the state treasury. The fund shall consist of money credited to it under section 909.15 of the Revised Code and under this chapter and any rules adopted under it. The director of agriculture shall use money in the fund to administer this chapter and Chapter 909. of the Revised Code.

The director shall keep accurate records of all receipts into and disbursements from the fund and shall prepare, and provide upon request, an annual report classifying the receipts and disbursements that pertain to plant pests.

Section 927.55 | Fee requirements exemptions.
 

The fees required by section 927.53 of the Revised Code do not apply to:

(A) A person who produces for sale either within this state or within any state in which such plants and parts do not require a certificate of inspection as a condition of entry, only nonhardy plants and plant parts, vegetable plants, herbs, or forced floral plants, of whatever nature, while in bloom;

(B) A person who conducts the sale of nursery stock as a fund raiser for a nonprofit organization or nonprofit purpose for no more than two days per year, who is not a nurseryman, dealer, or collector, and who makes no more than two thousand dollars in revenue from the sale of nursery stock during a calendar year;

(C) Any public or private arboretum operated not for profit, which exchanges inspected nursery stock in limited quantities for experimental or permanent arboretum plantings.

Section 927.56 | License for foreign nurserymen.
 

(A) Each nurseryman, dealer, or collector of nursery stock, who resides in or has his principal place of business in another state and who sends nursery stock into this state without having a bona fide order in advance for all such nursery stock, shall obtain the same license that is required by section 927.53 of the Revised Code.

(B) The director of agriculture may enter into such reciprocal contracts and agreements as the director determines proper and expedient, with the proper authorities of other states or of the federal government to regulate the shipment, sale, and distribution of nursery stock in this state by persons residing in or located in another state, in accordance with sections 927.51 to 927.73 of the Revised Code.

Section 927.58 | Notifying director of arrival of foreign nursery stock.
 

The director of agriculture may require any person who receives, directly or indirectly, nursery stock from a foreign country to notify the department of agriculture of the arrival of such shipment, the contents thereof, and the name and address of the consignor. If instructed to do so by the director, such person shall hold any such shipment unopened until inspected or released by the director. Any infested stock which is discovered in such shipment is subject to sections 927.68 and 927.70 of the Revised Code.

Section 927.59 | Nursery inspections.
 

The director of agriculture or his authorized representative, shall, at least once each year, inspect each nursery and other place in this state in which nursery stock is stored or held for sale. The director or his authorized representative shall have free access, within reasonable hours, to any field, orchard, garden, greenhouse, packing ground, building, cellar, freight, or express office, or warehouse, car, vessel, motor vehicle, or other place which it may be necessary or desirable for him to enter in administering sections 927.51 to 927.72, inclusive, of the Revised Code. No person shall deny such access to the director or any of his authorized representatives, or in any manner, hinder, thwart, or defeat such inspection by misrepresentation, or concealment of facts or conditions.

Section 927.60 | Application for inspection.
 

Each nurseryman or collector who sells or delivers nursery stock in this state shall apply in writing before the fifteenth day of April of each year to the director of agriculture for inspection of his nursery stock growing in this state. Such nurseryman or collector is liable for any additional expense incurred in the inspection of the nursery stock which may be due to his failure to give such notice prior to said date.

Section 927.61 | Certificate of inspection.
 

(A) The director of agriculture shall issue to each nurseryman, after the stock in his nursery has been officially inspected and found to be apparently free from injurious or harmful pests and after payment of the fees required by section 927.53 of the Revised Code, a certificate setting forth the fact of such inspection. The certificate is valid not to exceed one year from the first day of January following the filing of the application provided for in section 927.60 of the Revised Code.

(B) No person shall sell, offer for sale, or remove or ship from a nursery or other premises, any nursery stock unless such stock has been officially inspected and a valid certificate has been issued by the director.

Section 927.62 | False declaration of acreage - concealment of nursery stock from inspection.
 

(A) No person shall make a false declaration of acreage or conceal any nursery stock from inspection.

(B) Each person who sells nursery stock shall, if requested, furnish the director of agriculture with copies of the order forms, contracts, and agreements with his customers which are furnished for the use of agents or customers, or both.

Section 927.64 | Notice of restricted or condemned nursery stock.
 

(A) If the director of agriculture or his authorized representative determines that a pest in or on any premises used for growing, storage, or sale of nursery stock is destructive or harmful, he shall:

(1) Notify the nurseryman, dealer, collector or person having charge of the premises, in writing, of the presence of such pest;

(2) Restrict the movement of such infested stock, or withold such person's license or certificate until the premises are freed from such pest or until the pest has been brought under control to the satisfaction of the director.

(B) No person after receiving such notice shall ship, deliver, or cause to be shipped or delivered any restricted or condemned nursery stock from such premises.

Section 927.65 | Copy of license or certificate of inspection to be attached.
 

(A) Each person who wholesales, sells for resale, or distributes for resale nursery stock in this state shall attach on the outside of each package, box, bale, or vehicle load, or lot sold or delivered, a tag or poster on which shall appear on exact copy of his valid license or certificate of inspection.

(B) No person shall use certificate tags or posters which have been altered or are invalid.

(C) No person shall misuse a valid certificate tag or poster.

Section 927.66 | Facsimile copy of valid state or federal certificate of inspection to be attached to foreign stock.
 

(A) Nursery stock which is shipped into this state from another state or country, shall have attached thereto a tag or poster bearing a facsimile copy of a valid state or federal certificate of inspection.

(B) No person shall accept any nursery stock for transportation which does not have a facsimile of a valid certificate or license plainly affixed on the outside of the package, box, bale, vehicle, or car containing such nursery stock, which shows that the contents have been inspected by a state or federal inspector.

(C) No person shall deliver to a consignee nursery stock which does not bear a facsimile of a valid certificate on a tag or poster attached thereto until an authorized representative of the director of agriculture finds such nursery stock apparently free from pests and eligible for certification, and releases such stock for delivery.

Section 927.67 | Sales, claims or advertising prohibited.
 

(A) No person shall sell or offer for sale or distribute any nursery stock which:

(1) Is not securely labeled in accordance with the "International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants" with the complete correct botanical or approved common name as recognized by the latest edition of:

(a) "Wyman's gardening encyclopedia";

(b) Bailey's "Hortus III"; or

(c) Other authoritative works and checklists.

(2) Is labeled with any incorrect or misleading information about such nursery stock;

(3) Is not labeled as a collected plant if it is such;

(4) Is infested by, or infected with, a plant pest or is not otherwise sound and healthy;

(5) Has not been stored or displayed under conditions which will maintain its vigor;

(6) Is dead or seriously weakened by drying or by excessive heat or cold;

(7) Has been mechanically or otherwise treated to the extent of concealing its true condition;

(8) For any other cause is in such condition that it will not grow satisfactorily when given reasonable care;

(9) Has been placed under seizure or stop sale because of noncompliance with this section.

(B) Nothing in this section prevents the sale of color mixtures within types or species of flowering bulbs or herbaceous plants when sold as such.

(C) No person shall disseminate any false or misleading claim or advertisement concerning the vigor, vitality, rate of growth, yield capability, color of flower or foliage, or other growth or performance characteristic of any nursery stock, or make any claim that cannot be substantiated by a state or federal agricultural experiment station.

Section 927.68 | Seizure of nursery stock.
 

(A) The director of agriculture or his authorized representative may seize, or order removed from sale, any nursery stock which has been removed from the field where grown, has not been permanently replanted, and:

(1) Does not comply with the requirements of section 927.67 of the Revised Code with respect to soundness, vigor, or freedom from pests;

(2) Is not correctly labeled in accordance with section 927.67 of the Revised Code;

(3) Does not bear a certificate tag or poster as required by section 927.65 or 927.66 of the Revised Code;

(4) Is being offered for sale at a location or by a person not licensed under section 927.53 of the Revised Code.

(B)(1) The director may hold nursery stock seized by authority of division (A) of this section for ninety days or any lesser period of time, pending compliance with labeling, treating, or licensing requirements, or pending destruction of unsound, unhealthy, or weakened nursery stock.

(2) The director or his authorized representative shall cause tags to be attached to seized nursery stock at the time of seizure, and the nursery stock shall not be moved until the tag is removed by written release of the director.

(3) If a written release is not issued prior to the expiration of ninety days from the date of seizure, the seized nursery stock is subject to immediate confiscation by the director and the director may destroy it or give it to a state institution.

Section 927.681 | Prohibitions regarding multiflora rose plants or seed.
 

No person and no political subdivision, agency, department, or instrumentality of the state shall, without a permit issued by the director of agriculture, sell, offer for sale, or plant any variety of multiflora rose plants or seed in this state, except that a licensed nurseryman may plant the multiflora rose for use as a root stock in growing roses other than the multiflora rose in his nursery. The director may issue permits to plant the multiflora rose for use in controlled experiments.

Section 927.682 | Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) plants or seed permit.
 

(A) Except as otherwise provided in division (B) of this section, no person and no political subdivision, agency, department, or instrumentality of the state shall sell, offer for sale, or plant Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) plants or seed in this state without a permit issued by the director of agriculture. The director may issue permits to plant Lythrum salicaria for use in controlled experiments.

(B) The director, by rule, shall exempt from the permit requirement of division (A) of this section any variety of Lythrum salicaria that has been demonstrated to the director's satisfaction not to be a threat to the environment.

Section 927.69 | Inspection of nursery premises.
 

To effect the purpose of sections 927.51 to 927.73 of the Revised Code, the director of agriculture or the director's authorized representative may:

(A) Make reasonable inspection of any premises in this state and any property therein or thereon;

(B) Stop and inspect in a reasonable manner, any means of conveyance moving within this state upon probable cause to believe it contains or carries any pest, host, commodity, or other article that is subject to sections 927.51 to 927.72 of the Revised Code;

(C) Conduct inspections of agricultural products that are required by other states, the United States department of agriculture, other federal agencies, or foreign countries to determine whether the products are infested. If, upon making such an inspection, the director or the director's authorized representative determines that an agricultural product is not infested, the director or the director's authorized representative may issue a certificate, as required by other states, the United States department of agriculture, other federal agencies, or foreign countries, indicating that the product is not infested.

If the director charges fees for any of the certificates, agreements, or inspections specified in this section, the fees shall be as follows:

(1) Phytosanitary certificates, twenty-five dollars for shipments comprised exclusively of nursery stock;

(2) Phytosanitary certificates, one hundred dollars for all others;

(3) Phytosanitary certificates, twenty-five dollars for replacement of an issued certificate because of a mistake on the certificate or a change made by the shipper if no additional inspection is required;

(4) Compliance agreements, forty dollars;

(5) Agricultural products and their conveyances inspections, an amount equal to the hourly rate of pay in the highest step in the pay range, including fringe benefits, of a plant pest control specialist multiplied by the number of hours worked by such a specialist in conducting an inspection.

The director may adopt rules under section 927.52 of the Revised Code that define the certificates, agreements, and inspections.

The fees shall be credited to the plant pest program fund created in section 927.54 of the Revised Code.

Section 927.70 | Suppression of harmful or destructive plant pests.
 

(A) No person shall knowingly permit any plant pest that has been determined to be destructive or dangerously harmful by the director of agriculture, in compliance with procedures required by division (A) of section 927.52 of the Revised Code, to exist in or on the person's premises.

(B) Whenever the director or the director's authorized representative finds any article or commodity to be infested or has reason to believe it to be infested, or finds that a host or pest exists on any premises, or is in transit in this state, the director may:

(1) Upon giving notice to the owner or the owner's agent in possession thereof, seize, quarantine, treat, or otherwise dispose of the pest, host, article, or commodity in such manner as the director determines necessary to suppress, control, eradicate, or to prevent or retard the spread of a pest;

(2) Order the owner or agent to so treat or otherwise dispose of the pest, host, article, or commodity.

(C) If the owner or person in charge of the premises refuses or neglects to carry out the orders of the director within seven days after receiving written notice, the director may treat the premises; treat or destroy the infested plants or plant material; or apply any other preventive or remedial measure that the director determines necessary. The expense of any such preventative or remedial measures shall be assessed, collected, and enforced, as taxes are assessed, collected, and enforced, against the premises upon which the expense was incurred. The amount of the expense when collected shall be credited to the plant pest program fund created in section 927.54 of the Revised Code.

Section 927.701 | Voluntary gypsy moth suppression program.
 

(A) As used in this section, "gypsy moth" means the live insect, Lymantria dispar, in any stage of development.

(B) The director of agriculture may establish a voluntary gypsy moth suppression program under which a landowner may request that the department of agriculture have the landowner's property aerially sprayed to suppress the presence of gypsy moths in exchange for payment from the landowner of a portion of the cost of the spraying. To determine the total cost per acre, the department shall add the per-acre cost of the product selected by the landowner to suppress gypsy moths and the per-acre cost of applying the product as determined by the director in rules. To determine the aggregate total cost, the department shall multiply the total cost per acre by the number of acres that the landowner requests to be sprayed. The department shall add to that amount any administrative costs that it incurs in billing the landowner and collecting payment. The portion of the cost that is assessed to the landowner, if any, shall be determined by the funding that is allocated to the department by the federal and state gypsy moth suppression programs.

(C) The director shall adopt rules under Chapter 119. of the Revised Code to establish procedures under which a landowner may make a request under division (B) of this section, to establish the per-acre cost of applying product to suppress gypsy moths, and to establish provisions governing agreements between the department and landowners concerning gypsy moth suppression together with any other provisions that the director considers appropriate to administer this section.

(D) The director shall deposit all money collected under this section to the credit of the plant pest program fund created in section 927.54 of the Revised Code. Money credited to the fund under this section shall be used for the suppression of gypsy moths in accordance with this section.

Section 927.71 | Quarantine of nursery stock.
 

(A) The director of agriculture, in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, may quarantine:

(1) This state or any portion thereof when the director determines that such action is necessary to prevent or retard the spread of a pest into, within, or from this state;

(2) Any other state or portion thereof when the director determines that a pest exists therein and that such action is necessary to prevent or retard its spread into this state.

(B) The director may limit the application of a quarantine to the infested portions of the quarantined area and appropriate environs, to be known as the regulated area, and may, without further hearing, extend the regulated area to include additional portions of the quarantined area either:

(1) Upon publication of a notice to that effect in such newspapers in the quarantined area as the director may select;

(2) Upon written notice to those concerned.

(C) Following establishment of a quarantine, no person shall move any regulated article described in the quarantine, or move the pest against which the quarantine is established, within, from, into, or through this state contrary to rules adopted by the director without prior permission or order of the director.

(D) A rule may restrict the movement of a pest and any regulated article from the quarantined or regulated area in this state into or through other parts of this state or other states and from the quarantine or regulated area in other states into or through this state and may impose such inspection, disinfection, certification, permit, or other requirements as the director determines necessary to effectuate the purpose of sections 927.51 to 927.73 of the Revised Code.

Section 927.72 | Violations of nursery stock laws.
 

(A) No person shall violate sections 927.51 to 927.71, inclusive, of the Revised Code, or any rule or regulation of the director of agriculture promulgated under such sections.

(B) The act, omission, or failure of any officer, agent, servant, or other individual acting for or employed by any person within the scope of his employment or office, shall be the act, omission, or failure of such person, as well as that of the officer, agent, servant, or other employee.

Section 927.73 | Prosecution of violations.
 

(A) The director of agriculture or his authorized representative may prosecute any violation of sections 927.51 to 927.72, inclusive, of the Revised Code, in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(B) Upon request of the director, the prosecuting attorney of the county, or the prosecuting officer of any other political subdivision, in which any such prosecution is pending, shall aid in any investigation, prosecution, hearing, or trial had under sections 927.51 to 927.73, inclusive, of the Revised Code, and shall institute and prosecute such actions or proceedings for the enforcement of such sections and the punishment of all violations thereof as the director may request.

Section 927.99 | Penalty.
 

Whoever violates sections 927.51 to 927.72 of the Revised Code is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree on a first offense; on each subsequent offense, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree.