A quarantine expansion has been declared following the detection of the citrus disease huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening, in two residential citrus trees in Colton, California. This is the first time the disease has been confirmed in Colton. This detection came on the heels of the first detection in San Bernardino County in November 2019. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the San Bernardino County and Riverside County agricultural commissioners on the HLB finds.
The expanded 51-square-mile quarantine area will link up with the existing quarantines in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, putting more than 1,275 square miles of Southern California into the HLB quarantine area. The expanded portion is bordered on the north by West Fifth Street and East Fifth Street; on the east side of Highway 210 near Redlands by West Highland Avenue and San Timoteo Canyon Road in San Bernardino County; and on the south by Pico Visto Way in Riverside County.
Area orange groves affected by the quarantine expansion include City Palmetto, Mt. View, 1-10, and the Gateway Grove.
HLB quarantine maps for San Bernardino and Riverside counties are available online at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/hlb/regulation.html. Please check this link for future quarantine expansions in these counties, should they occur.
The quarantine prohibits the movement of all citrus nursery stock or plant parts out of the quarantine area. Provisions exist to allow the movement of commercially cleaned and packed citrus fruit. If you are a grower within the new quarantine expansion area, please contact CDFA’s emergency quarantine response program at 916-654-0312 for information on these provisions.
Fruit that is not commercially cleaned and packed, including residential citrus, such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits and kumquats, must not be moved from the property on which it is grown, although it may be processed and/or consumed on the premises.