The Senate and House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committees Wednesday held a joint hearing on the impact of the Spotted Lanternfly in quarantine areas in Eastern Pennsylvania reporting that 1,462 properties have infestations so far.

Click Here to watch a video of the hearing.

Russell Redding, Secretary of Agriculture, told the Committees his agency has been working since 2014 to deal with the Spotted Lanternfly with Berks County as the epicenter of the fight.

“With spotted lanternfly, we are facing a new threat whose behavior and biology continues to unfold over the three years we have watched it. Across the Commonwealth, we have a rich and diverse landscape: forests, towns, cities, parks, thriving businesses, and productive agricultural lands,” said Redding. “Unfortunately, each of these are at risk today given the spotted lanternfly's destructive behavior.

“At the Department of Agriculture, we have already devoted an estimated half-million dollars in staff time responding to this pest, while the USDA has provided $5.5 million in direct local support, in addition to research funding,” explained Redding.  “Our partners in government, universities, business, and communities have spent their own funds to control spotted lanternfly, as well.

“While the expense of responding to this threat mount, it is important to remember that the costs to our economy could be far, far greater ultimately. This pest threatens to destroy $18 billion of plant based commodities here. It also threatens our interstate and international export industry.”

Sven-Erik Spichigar, Entomology Program Manager for the Department of Agriculture and Dana Rhodes, State Plant Regulatory Official with PDA provided an overview and more detail of issues related to the lanternfly.

Matthew Rhoads, Executive Director of Plant Health Programs at the U.S. Department of  Agriculture, summarized U.S.D.A. efforts to deal with the lanternfly and said their focus is to develop effective control measures including pesticide, herbicide, tree removal, biological controls and other tools.

Emelie Swackhamer, Penn State Extension, described their efforts to educate the public on the lanternfly, including public meetings to train people to educate others to identify and deal with the threat.

Marianna Lieberman of Maple Springs Vineyard and Calvin Beekman of Beekman Orchards, both from Berks County, described their efforts to deal with hundreds of thousands of spotted lanternflies and the impact it has had on their operations.

Click Here to watch a video of the hearing.

For more background information, visit the Department of Agriculture’s Spotted Lanternfly webpage.

Sen. Elder Vogel (R-Beaver) serves as Majority Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and can be contacted by sending email to: evogel@pasen.gov.  Sen. Judy Schwank (D-Berks) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by sending email to: SenatorSchwank@pasenate.com.

Rep. Martin Causer (R-Cameron) serves as Majority Chair of the House Agriculture Committee and can be contacted by sending email to: mcauser@pahousegop.com. Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski (D-Luzerne) serves as Minority Chair and can be contacted by sending email to: epashins@pahouse.net.

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[Posted: Oct. 19, 2017]

10/23/2017