Substitute House Bill No. 5225, Public Act No. 24-11, is an act concerning the recommendations of the Invasive Plants Council. The bill amends Section 22a-381d of the general statutes, effective October 1, 2024, to prohibit the import, movement, sale, purchase, transplant, cultivation, or distribution of a specified list of invasive plants. The list includes various species such as curly-leaved pondweed, fanwort, eurasian water milfoil, and many others, totaling 61 different plants. The bill also introduces new legal language that renumbers the existing list of prohibited invasive plants and adds new species to be prohibited on or after October 1, 2024, and October 1, 2027, including porcelainberry, mugwort, quackgrass, Japanese angelica tree, Japanese wisteria, Chinese wisteria, and callery pear.

The bill specifies that the prohibitions do not apply to the moving for eradication, research, or educational purposes of any listed invasive plant or any reproductive portion of such a plant, or to the cultivating for research purposes of any such plant or reproductive portion. It also states that from July 1, 2009, until October 1, 2014, no municipality shall adopt any ordinance regarding the retail sale or purchase of any invasive plant. Violations of the provisions of this section may result in a fine of not more than one hundred dollars per plant. Additionally, by March 1, 2025, the Invasive Plants Council must submit a report to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly on the cultivars of Japanese barberry and Burning bush that are sterile and may reasonably be sold in the state. The act was approved on May 14, 2024.

Statutes affected:
Raised Bill:
ENV Joint Favorable Substitute:
File No. 84:
Public Act No. 24-11: