On November 16, 2007 we were notified by State and Local government that we were under quarantine for Mexican Fruit Fly. The Mexican fruit fly is a destructive insect pest of innumerable commercial agricultural crops. Many kinds of fruit, including apple, apricot, avocado, citrus (except lemon and sour lime), guava, nectarine, peach, pear, plum, and pomegranate, and the fruiting bodies of some wild and ornamental plants are known to be hosts or possible hosts of the Mexican fruit fly. Larval feeding reduces the interior of fruit to a rotten mass. Egg punctures admit decay organisms that cause tissue breakdown. Damaged fruit is generally unfit for human consumption. Movement of hosts infested with the larvae of the fly can artificially spread the fly. Mexican fruit flies had been detected at two separate locations on properties in the Escondido area. On November 6th a total of five female Mexican fruit flies were taken from traps on properties in Escondido. The detection of multiple Mexican fruit fly females at two separate properties is indicative of an incipient infestation of Mexican fruit fly in the Escondido area. The proposed quarantine area includes the two properties as epicenters and a buffer zone extending approx- imately 4-1/2 miles in each direction from these epicenters. A buffer zone is necessary because the fly can spread naturally (as well as artificially in infested hosts). The boundary line was drawn by the United States Department of Agriculture, the California Department of Agriculture, and the San Diego County Agricultural Commissioner and is considered the minimum area around the infested properties that should be regulated to prevent artificial spread of Mexican fruit fly to non infested areas. If the fly were allowed to spread and become established in host fruit production areas, California’s agriculture industry would suffer losses due to increased pesticide use, decreased production of market- able fruit, and loss of markets if the United States Department of Agriculture or other states or coun- tries enact a quarantine against California products which can host and carry the fly. It is estimated that the establishment of Mexican fruit fly could cost an additional $124 million per year in increased production costs. Mexican fruit fly has been introduced into California a number of times, through the movement of prohibited host fruits and vegetables into the State, and has always been successfully eradicated. The Mexican fruit fly has the capability of causing significant irreparable harm to Cali- fornia’s Agricultural industry and some possible adverse environmental impacts. While the Department’s compliance with the California Administrative Procedure Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) are separate actions, they can be interrelated. Although adoption of specific regulatory authority can be the beginning of a project and therefore covered by CEQA, this regulation, for the reasons already set forth, constitutes a specific act necessary to prevent or mitigate an emergency as authorized by Public Resources Code section 21080, subdivision (b) (4) and Title 14, California Code of Regulations Section 15269, subdivision (c). The regulation is also an action required for the preservation of the environment and natural resources as authorized by Title 14, California Code of Regulations, Sections 15307 and 15308. This amendment of Section 3417(b) established approximately 78 square miles surrounding the infestation in the Escondido area under quarantine for Mexican fruit fly. To prevent artificial spread of the fly to non infested areas to protect California’s agricultural industry, it was necessary immed- iately to regulate movement of host that carry the fly from, into and within the infested area and a surrounding buffer area. Therefore, it was necessary to amend this regulation to establish a new quarantine area in the Escondido area as an emergency action.