65164 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 203 / Thursday, October 20, 2011 / Notices 

technologies; e.g., permitting electronic 

submission of responses. 

Estimate of burden: The public 

reporting burden for this collection of 

information is estimated to average 

0.5714285 hours per response. 

Respondents: Foreign plant protection 

service officials and growers in the 

Netherlands and Denmark. 

Estimated annual number of 

respondents: 20. 

Estimated annual number of 

responses per respondent: 10.5. 

Estimated annual number of 

responses: 210. 

Estimated total annual burden on 

respondents: 120 hours. (Due to 

averaging, the total annual burden hours 

may not equal the product of the annual 

number of responses multiplied by the 

reporting burden per response.) 

All responses to this notice will be 

summarized and included in the request 

for OMB approval. All comments will 

also become a matter of public record. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 14th day of 

October 2011. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2011–27170 Filed 10–19–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

[Docket No. APHIS–2011–0096] 

Notice of Request for Extension of 

Approval of an Information Collection; 

Hawaiian and Territorial Quarantine 

Notices 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Extension of approval of an 

information collection; comment 

request. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 

notice announces the Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service’s intention to 

request an extension of approval of an 

information collection associated with 

regulations to prevent the interstate 

spread of plant pests from the State of 

Hawaii and U.S. territories. 

DATES: We will consider all comments 

that we receive on or before December 

19, 2011. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by either of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2011-0096- 

0001. 

• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: 

Send your comment to Docket No. 

APHIS–2011–0096, Regulatory Analysis 

and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 

3A–03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1238. 

Supporting documents and any 

comments we receive on this docket 

may be viewed at http:// 

www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2011-0096 or 

in our reading room, which is located in 

room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 

14th Street and Independence Avenue, 

SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading 

room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except 

holidays. To be sure someone is there to 

help you, please call (202) 690–2817 

before coming. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

information on regulations for the 

interstate movement of fruits and 

vegetables from Hawaii and U.S. 

territories, contact Mr. David Lamb, 

Import Specialist, Regulations, Permits, 

and Manuals, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River 

Road, Unit 156, Riverdale, MD 20737; 

(301) 734–0627. For copies of more 

detailed information on the information 

collection, contact Mrs. Celeste Sickles, 

APHIS’ Information Collection 

Coordinator, at (301) 851–2908. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: Hawaiian and Territorial 

Quarantine Notices. 

OMB Number: 0579–0198. 

Type of Request: Extension of 

approval of an information collection. 

Abstract: As authorized by the Plant 

Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.) 

(PPA), the Secretary of Agriculture may 

prohibit or restrict the importation, 

entry, exportation, or movement in 

interstate commerce of any plant, plant 

product, biological control organism, 

noxious weed, means of conveyance, or 

other article if the Secretary determines 

that the prohibition or restriction is 

necessary to prevent a plant pest or 

noxious weed from being introduced 

into or disseminated within the United 

States. This authority has been 

delegated to the Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service (APHIS), 

which administers regulations to 

implement the PPA. 

Regulations governing the interstate 

movement of plants and plant products 

from Hawaii and U.S. territories, 

including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the 

U.S. Virgin Islands, are contained in 7 

CFR part 318, ‘‘State of Hawaii and 

Territories Quarantine Notices.’’ 

These regulations are necessary to 

prevent the interstate spread of plant 

pests such as the Mediterranean fruit 

fly, the melon fly, the Oriental fruit fly, 

green coffee scale, the bean pod borer, 

and other plant pests to noninfested 

areas of the United States. 

Administering these regulations 

requires APHIS to collect information 

from a variety of individuals who are 

involved in growing, packing, handling, 

and transporting plants and plant 

products. This information serves as 

supporting documentation required for 

the issuance of forms and documents, 

including limited permits, Federal 

certificates, compliance agreements, and 

applications for transit permits, that 

authorize the movement of regulated 

articles and is vital to help ensure that 

injurious plant pests are not spread 

interstate from the State of Hawaii and 

U.S. territories to noninfested areas of 

the United States. 

We are asking the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) to 

approve our use of these information 

collection activities for an additional 3 

years. 

The purpose of this notice is to solicit 

comments from the public (as well as 

affected agencies) concerning our 

information collection. These comments 

will help us: 

(1) Evaluate whether the collection of 

information is necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of the 

Agency, including whether the 

information will have practical utility; 

(2) Evaluate the accuracy of our 

estimate of the burden of the collection 

of information, including the validity of 

the methodology and assumptions used; 

(3) Enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and 

(4) Minimize the burden of the 

collection of information on those who 

are to respond, through use, as 

appropriate, of automated, electronic, 

mechanical, and other collection 

technologies; e.g., permitting electronic 

submission of responses. 

Estimate of burden: The public 

reporting burden for this collection of 

information is estimated to average 

0.7371428 hours per response. 

Respondents: State plant health 

regulatory officials, irradiation facility 

personnel, and individuals involved in 

growing, packing, handling, and 

transporting plants and plant products. 

Estimated annual number of 

respondents: 110. 

Estimated annual number of 

responses per respondent: 38.181818. 

Estimated annual number of 

responses: 4,200. 

Estimated total annual burden on 

respondents: 3,096 hours. (Due to 

averaging, the total annual burden hours 

may not equal the product of the annual 


sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 203 / Thursday, October 20, 2011 / Notices 65165 

1 ISPMs are developed under the auspices of the 

International Plant Protection Convention, to which 

the United States is a signatory. To view this and 

other ISPMs on the Internet, go to http:// 

www.ippc.int/ and click on the ‘‘Adopted 

Standards’’ link under the ‘‘Core activities’’ 

heading. 

number of responses multiplied by the 

reporting burden per response.) 

All responses to this notice will be 

summarized and included in the request 

for OMB approval. All comments will 

also become a matter of public record. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 14th day of 

October 2011. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2011–27172 Filed 10–19–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

[Docket No. APHIS–2011–0092] 

Importation of Plants for Planting; 

Risk-Based Sampling and Inspection 

Approach and Propagative Monitoring 

and Release Program 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: We are advising the public of 

our decision to implement a risk-based 

sampling approach for the inspection of 

imported plants for planting. In our 

previous approach, we inspected 2 

percent of consignments of imported 

plants for planting regardless of 

previous evidence of the risk posed by 

the plants for planting. The risk-based 

sampling and inspection approach will 

allow us to target high-risk plants for 

planting for more extensive inspection 

to help ensure that plants for planting 

infested with quarantine pests do not 

enter the United States, while providing 

a speedier inspection process for lowerrisk plants for planting. In addition, for 

taxa of plants for planting that pose an 

extremely low risk, we are establishing 

a Propagative Monitoring and Release 

Program under which consignments of 

those taxa will be periodically 

monitored but not every consignment 

will be inspected. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Gordon Muraoka, National Plant 

Inspection Station Coordinator, PPQ, 

APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 133, 

Riverdale, MD 20737; (301) 734–0932; 

or Dr. Mary Palm, Senior Mycologist 

and Lab Director, National Identification 

Services, Molecular Diagnostic Lab, 

PPQ, APHIS, B–580, BARC-East, 

Powder Mill Road, Beltsville, MD 

20705; (301) 504–7154. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

regulations in 7 CFR part 319 prohibit 

or restrict the importation of certain 

plants and plant products into the 

United States to prevent the 

introduction of plant pests that are not 

already established in the United States 

or plant pests that may be established 

but are under official control to 

eradicate or contain them within the 

United States. 

The regulations in ‘‘Subpart—Plants 

for Planting,’’ §§ 319.37 through 319.37– 

14 (referred to below as the regulations), 

restrict the importation of plants for 

planting. Plants for planting is defined 

in § 319.37–1 as plants intended to 

remain planted, to be planted or 

replanted. The definition of plant in that 

section includes any plant (including 

any plant part) for or capable of 

propagation, including a tree, a tissue 

culture, a plantlet culture, pollen, a 

shrub, a vine, a cutting, a graft, a scion, 

a bud, a bulb, a root, and a seed. 

All plants for planting imported into 

the United States must be presented for 

inspection. Inspectors examine the 

plants for planting to determine whether 

they show any visual evidence of being 

infested with quarantine pests or 

infected with quarantine pathogens. 

After inspection, the plants may be 

allowed entry into the United States 

(with treatment, if necessary), 

destroyed, or reexported, depending on 

the results of the inspection. 

Plants for planting that are required to 

be imported under a written permit 

under § 319.37–3(a)(1) through (a)(6) 

and that are not from Canada must be 

imported or offered for importation at a 

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 

plant inspection station. Under 

§ 319.37–3(a)(5), lots of 13 or more 

articles (other than seeds, bulbs, or 

sterile cultures of orchid plants) from 

any country or locality except Canada 

may be imported into the United States 

only after issuance of a written permit. 

Therefore, most consignments of plants 

for planting must be imported or offered 

for importation at a USDA plant 

inspection station. Such stations are 

listed in § 319.37–14. Plants for planting 

that are offered for inspection at a USDA 

plant inspection station are inspected by 

Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) 

inspectors. 

This notice announces our decision to 

standardize our approach to sampling 

and inspecting consignments of plants 

for planting offered for importation at 

USDA plant inspection stations based 

on the pest risk presented by the plants 

for plant for planting. 

To this point, PPQ inspectors have 

inspected a minimum of 2 percent of 

every consignment of plants for planting 

presented for inspection. We have 

assessed our sampling and inspection 

methods and found that we can use our 

resources more effectively by targeting 

our efforts towards plants for planting 

that are known to present a higher risk, 

based on past inspection results for 

those plants for planting. Such an 

approach would be consistent with 

International Standard for Phytosanitary 

Measures (ISPM) #31, ‘‘Methodologies 

for Sampling of Consignments.’’ 1

Therefore, we are standardizing our 

sampling and inspection approach to 

adjust the intensity of our inspection of 

imported plants for planting based on 

the risk they present of introducing 

quarantine pests into the United States. 

We will evaluate the risk associated 

with combinations of taxa of plants for 

planting and countries from which they 

are exported and assign risk ratings to 

those articles. 

Plants for planting determined to 

present an extremely low risk will be 

inspected under the Propagative 

Monitoring and Release Program 

(PMRP). Taxa of plants for planting 

included in this program will be 

periodically monitored at plant 

inspection stations. Not every 

consignment of plants for planting 

included in the PRMP will be inspected, 

but those consignments that are 

inspected will be inspected at normal 

levels to confirm the plants’ continued 

eligibility for the PMRP. 

Subsequently, we will also implement 

a risk-based sampling plan for all other 

plants for planting. We will implement 

this approach initially by considering 

all taxa of plants for planting to be high 

risk. All plants for planting will be 

sampled at high risk rates until we have 

gathered sufficient data to establish that 

the plants for planting present a 

medium or low risk. 

If a taxon of plants for planting from 

a certain country is determined to 

present a medium or low risk, it will be 

sampled at the plant inspection stations 

at a less intensive rate than high-risk 

plants for planting. We will continue to 

sample some consignments of the taxon 

at higher rates to monitor whether the 

taxon should still be considered to be 

medium or low risk. We will update our 

categorizations of taxa regularly in 

response to data from all inspections. 

This approach will allow us to target 

our resources towards taxa of plants for 

planting that pose the greatest risk and 

thus to provide greater security against 

the introduction of quarantine pests into 

the United States. 


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