[Nhcoll-l] Importing herbarium specimens to the US

[Taylor, Sarah]

Hi all,

Does anyone have up to date guidance on hand-carrying dead, dried herbarium specimens into the US from an international departure? The USDA APHIS Plants and Planting manual web page now says that for Herbarium specimens, one must refer to the Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements (ACIR) database. In that database, you enter the scientific name of the plant and "preparation" (of course, herbarium specimen is not listed, so I put in "dried") but none of the search results have anything to do with herbaria.

I'm aware of the section<https://acir.aphis.usda.gov/s/acir-document-detail?rowId=a0jt000001BjDUbAAN&Document_Type=Reference%20Documents> of the old Plants and Planting manual that said that herbarium specimens are exempt from import permit requirements, but now I don't know if carrying a hard copy of that is enough to clear screening/questions.

Also (because I've never done this myself), does the person with the specimens declare them to CBP? (I assume yes).

Is anything else required at the point of entry (besides documentation of species IDs/not noxious weeds/not CITES/not ESA/not parasitic and what institution will receive the specimens)? Even though herbarium specimens are supposed to be exempt, does one need to schedule an appointment at a plant inspection station or with the USDA?

I feel so much more informed about shipping internationally (thanks, Dirk!), but I've been asked for advice recently on hand-carry. Honestly, I think the person should just ship the specimens, but we'll see.

Thanks for any advice and input!
Best,
Sarah



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Sarah Taylor, PhD


Scientific Collections Manager

George Safford Torrey Herbarium (CONN)
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut
75 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3043
Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3043
U.S.A.

P: 860.486.1889
F: 860.486.4320
https://biodiversity.uconn.edu/herbarium/



Pronouns: she/her or they/them


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