Importing Little Plants Creates Big Problems

Hambden Township-- Caution guided Frank Mihalic's plans to restock his family's Geauga County bonsai nursery with foreign plants. He had heard about changes in federal import regulations. He wasn't sure what he could -- or could not -- do under his existing permit.
So Mihalic checked and double-checked with state regulators before moving ahead. He booked a trip to the Far East only after getting a letter from the Ohio Department of Agriculture giving him the go-ahead to import bonsai specimens onto American soil.
Mihalic spent $20,000 buying 229 bonsai plants on that trip in March 2004. He arranged shipment to Wildwood Gardens in Hambden Township and flew home to await the arrival of the small, artistically styled trees.
His investment, however, went up in smoke.
The permit issues that Mihalic fretted about before traveling overseas turned out to be valid. U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors impounded the bonsai trees as they entered the nation from Japan and Taiwan. Weeks later, the USDA torched the plants.
"We tried to do things the right way," laments Mihalic, 48, who operates Wildwood Gardens with his father, Tony. "We tried . . . we really did."
A lawsuit over the "bad advice" that Mihalic says he received from the state is pending in Ohio's Court of Claims in Columbus. Wildwood Gardens is seeking $29,872 in damages from the state, enough to cover the bonsai plants, shipping costs and travel expenses on the trip to Asia.
The state is not liable for Mihalic's loss and will fight the claim, says LeeAnne Mizer, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture.
She said it was Mihalic's responsibility -- not the state's -- to know the federal import regulations.
"We are not the USDA," Mizer said. "If he had questions, he should have asked them."
Mihalic said he contacted the state inspector who usually works with Wildwood Gardens to get importation answers. Mary J. Smallsreed, a plant pest control specialist, replied with a pair of memos on state Department of Agriculture letterhead.
She wrote both times that Wildwood was following requirements. Smallsreed could not be reached for comment.
In the second memo, dated March 2, 2004, Smallsreed wrote that Mihalic could continue following "regulations which have been used in the past....This will allow Wildwood Gardens to import plants needed for their business" and meet inspection standards.
But federal rules regarding bonsai imports changed twice between September 2002 and October 2003, resulting in morerestrictive regulations, according to Dore Mobley, a spokeswoman with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Worries about wood-boring beetles arriving with the foreign plants pushed the policies, which mandated that artificially dwarfed plants be quarantined and monitored for two years to guard against hitchhiking foreign bugs.
State departments of agriculture receive notices about new guidelines, Mobley said.
Meanwhile, Wildwood Gardens fights to survive after 58 years in business. Sales under the quarantine restrictions are down more than half, dropping from about $100,000 annually to about $40,000.
Some good news came this week, however. Federal and state officials inspected and gave a preliminary OK for a quarantine facility, which will allow the nursery to take in foreign plants. Wildwood would become the 11th site in the nation entered into the program.
Still, Wildwood may not be able to stay open, says Tony Mihalic, 82. The nearly $30,000 loss on the ill-fated Asian trip may force the nursery to close.
"We're struggling ...struggling like hell," the elder Mihalic said. "The state doesn’t want to take blame for what happened, and neither does the federal government. I’m the only one paying here, and I can’t afford it."