Resolve, Directing the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources To Develop Criteria for Identifying Invasive Terrestrial Plants

Sec. 1. Identification of invasive terrestrial plants. Resolved: That, no later than February 1, 2012, the Commissioner of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, referred to in this resolve as "the commissioner," shall adopt rules under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 7, section 2217 establishing criteria by which to evaluate nonnative plant species for inclusion on a list of invasive terrestrial plants. The commissioner may use criteria developed in response to Resolve 2007, chapter 21 and included in a report to the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on February 1, 2008 as the basis for the rules. The rules may include a provision allowing the commissioner to evaluate a cultivar of a species listed or proposed for listing as an invasive terrestrial plant. The commissioner may exclude a cultivar from the list when an evaluation demonstrates that the cultivar does not meet the criteria for inclusion as an invasive terrestrial plant. Rules adopted under this resolve are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.

For the purposes of this resolve, "invasive terrestrial plant" means any nonnative plant species that has spread or has the potential to spread into native or minimally managed plant habitats in the State and has caused or has the potential to cause economic or environmental harm by developing self-sustaining populations that disrupt or threaten native plant populations in the State; and be it further

Sec. 2. List of invasive terrestrial plants. Resolved: That the commissioner shall propose a prioritized list of nonnative plant species to be evaluated using the criteria developed under section 1; and be it further

Sec. 3. Report to Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Resolved: That, no later than February 15, 2012, the commissioner shall report to the Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on the evaluation criteria established in rule and a list of plants being considered for evaluation using the criteria adopted under section 1.