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Agricultural inspector Christopher Stone displays some of the fruit collected from drivers entering California from Oregon on Interstate 5.
Photo by BOB PENNELL
By MARCIA SAVAGE
HORNBROOK - Ren and Stimpy didn't make it very far on their first trip to California.
Inspectors with the California Department of Food and Agriculture stopped 10-year-old Robert Twidwell's pet gerbils on Interstate 5, about six miles south of the Oregon-California border.
"I'm so sorry," Matt Pastell, a supervisor at the Hornbrook inspection station, told the distraught boy.
On the same day, inspectors also stopped a bag of longans - an exotic grape-like fruit from East India - a bunch of rotting apples and some oranges from Australia before they were hauled very far into the Golden State.
Outfitted in khaki uniforms, the inspectors are assigned the task of protecting California from plant pests, from apple moths and beetles to gerbils.
The Hornbrook station is one of 16 state border inspection stations, and one of six stations on the California-Oregon border screening vehicles for pests that could be destructive to the state's multi-billion dollar agricultural industry. State and industry officials say the efforts have paid off.
"Essentially, they are looking for people who obviously have been traveling from other states where we know there are infestations of a pest we don't have," said Larry Cooper, public affairs officer with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
"They look for people who have been traveling long distances."
Besides checking out travelers' produce, inspectors also check out their vehicles. People who camp in other parts of the country often return with eggs of gypsy moths under their vehicles, Cooper said.
Cooper said protecting the state's agricultural industry is economically essential because one in 10 jobs in California is related to agriculture. Last year, the state spent $9.6 million to operate the border stations. Inspectors earn between $22.39 and $29.54 an hour.
Statistics prove the inspection stations' success, he said. In 1996, 2,638 "significant agricultural pests" were caught at the border stations, including gypsy moths, apple maggots, and the Mediterranean fruit fly.
Non-native animals such as gerbils also threaten crops.
Clark Biggs, communications director for the California Farm Bureau Federation, said the stations are efficient and effective.
"The people there are well trained and really know what they are doing," Biggs said. "They have literally saved California agriculture millions and millions of dollars.
"The fact that we have so many millions of people coming into California every year, and the very few infestations that we incur, proves to us the efficiency of the operation."
Fifteen people work at the Hornbrook station, which operates around the clock. They screen roughly 5,000 cars and 1,000 trucks each day, confiscating an average of 80 items and five pests a day.
Standing at his post at the inspection station, Jim Proctor, 43, reeled off a round of questions at a man driving through in an Acura.
"How far north have you been?"
"Any plants? Any animals? Any firewood?"
After confirming there was nothing to check, Proctor waved the man on: "Have a nice trip."
Another motorist holds up a banana peel. "You don't want it?" he asked with a slight smirk. "Bananas are OK," Proctor replied.
With 11 years on the job, Proctor said he can tell by the color of the dirt on a car how far it has traveled. He also said he can ferret out those who lie about their produce.
"You can't learn that in a book," he said.
Although inspectors allow most produce through the station, they're on guard for exotic fruits such as papayas and mangos. Cooper said exotic produce enters Canada from other countries without any restrictions, and people bring them into California. Pastell said one exotic fruit confiscated in Hornbrook carried four different insects.
"We really like to get that exotic fruit," he said.
So when inspector Diane Justice discovered the bag of longans, a buzz of excitement erupted in the station and supervisor Pastell rushed over to check out the goods.
Vincent Koo of San Francisco looked a little dazed as the inspectors confiscated the plastic bag full of the small, beige-colored fruit that he unwittingly bought in British Columbia. But he wasn't upset about losing his produce.
"It's OK. I think it's good for the environment," said Koo, 23. "But I'll miss eating them."
Inspectors cut up the longans, and sure enough, they were infested with scale and mealy bugs.
Once produce is inspected for pests, inspectors destroy it via a large garbage disposal.
Inspectors also confiscate certain trees and plants that don't have the proper certification. While some travelers manage to obtain the certification and retrieve their trees or plants, inspectors burn the leftovers in a large kiln next to the station.
"Anything that won't fit in the garbage disposal" goes into the kiln, Pastell said.
Confiscated animals - such as ferrets and hedgehogs - generally meet a better fate. Pastell said ferrets are usually put up for adoption through a program in Oregon. Other animals are handed over to the California Department of Fish and Game, which finds them homes.
In the case of Ren and Stimpy, Pastell promised to keep the furry pair at the station for a couple of days until Robert's father picked them up on his return trip to Cottage Grove.
Pastell, a veteran inspector with 18 years under his belt, said the job doesn't get dull. He asks his questions in different ways, and tries to make motorists laugh.
Inspector Proctor said, "You don't get bored on the freeway. You talk to 1,000 people a day."
Smugglers - and citations - are rare, Pastell said. But inspectors have lots of road tales - from the motorists who get mad and throw fruit at them or threaten to call their friend the governor to the family who stops on the side of the road and frantically eats five pounds of bananas. Others mistakenly hand over money, thinking the station is a toll booth.
One man, convinced the inspectors would eat his fruit, stomped on it at the station. Some people in RV's will pull off the road and make an apple pie.
"Anything to keep that piece of fruit," Pastell said.