Internal newsletter of the Northeastern Pest Management Center.
Issue 2, August 2001
Information Network Projects updates:
New PESP Grant Enhances PA School IPM
- Western Region PMC meeting
- National PMC leadership meeting
Liz Thomas completed production of the Center's first newsletter and shipped out about 1400 copies. You all should have received these by now. In addition to NE PMC 'insiders', we sent copies to many stakeholder groups recommended by some of you, to all U.S. Senators and House Reps. for our region, to IPM and Pesticide Safety Education Education Program Coordinators across the country, and to the other regional pest management centers. The newsletter may be downloaded in PDF format online at http://nepmc.org/quarterly/summer2001.html . I hope to have an html format ready soon.
The newsletter will be printed and distributed on a quarterly basis. Any ideas or submissions you would like to see in it are welcome.
If you keep an eye on http://nepmc.org/ you will notice some changes. These include:
• An administrative change so either "www.nepmc.org" or "nepmc.org" will work.
• We'll be combining some of the navigation buttons to clean up the look of the page and, we hope, make navigation a little more intuitive.
• The logo will be modified slightly.
• The top of the page will be rearranged slightly to read more left-to-right.
• It looks like we will soon stop using "frames". This should make bookmarking favorite pages more straightforward.
• New content is being added regularly.
Liz Thomas and I were able to attend a training session in Raleigh early in July. We both learned a great deal about database development and management as well as about Cold Fusion, the program we use to serve our information online. Although the Center for IPM crew has been excellent in responding to our requests for changes, we are convinced that in the long run NE PMC will benefit from our ability to manage our online resources locally.
The Pest Management Strategic Plan workshop for cranberries, sponsored by NE PMC in partnership with the Cranberry Institute, is coming together nicely with participants signed up from all major production areas in the nation. We will meet for two days, Aug. 16-17, in Providence, Rhode Island.
(provided by Susan Whitney)
Crop profile on wheat is in progress.
Notices on changes in pesticide registration due to FQPA were posted on the Pesticide Briefs page of The Delaware Pesticide Information Web Site at: http://www.udel.edu/pesticide/briefs.htm Postings were announced to the agricultural community through the Weekly Crop Update.
Presentations made:
• Information Technology: How to find what you need on the web. 1/30/2001. 11th Annual Delaware Pesticide Conference. Dover DE.
• Safe Pesticide Storage. 1/31/2001. Delmarva Agricultural Safety & Health Conference. Dover DE.
• Be Safe with Pesticides: Read the Label. 4/23/01. UD Master Gardener Training. Newark DE.
• Wake up your Audience with Active Learning! 6/13/01. National Pesticide Certification & Training Conference. San Antonio TX.
• Use the Pesticide Label. 7/25/01. EPA Region III Environmental Education Program. Wilmington DE.
Presentations at Delaware Pesticide Applicator Training: Pesticide Registration; Pesticides and the Environment; The Pesticide Label. 9/5-6/00; 12/12-13/00; 3/14-15/01; 3/19-20/01; 3/28-29/01; 6/26-27/01.
Meetings Attended in addition to above: DE Agronomy Day. 2/22/01. Harrington DE. Governor‚s Conference on Delaware Agriculture. 2/23/01. Dover DE. Eastern Branch of the ESA. 3/4-6/01. Harrisburg PA. American Association of Pesticide Control Officials. 3/11-14/01. Arlington VA.
Meetings Chaired: Delaware Governor's Pesticide Advisory Committee Meeting. 1/17/01; 4/4/01; 7/11/01. Dover De.
Major needs of horticultural industry in Delaware: Joanne Whalen, IPM Coordinator, reports:
(1) Spider Mites on Soybeans - still have no effective material and EPA will not give us a Section 18 for Danitol this year since the company is not pursuing a Sect 3.
(2) Spider Mites in Melons - resistance management a key issue - lots of new reduced materials to pursue - Milbemectin ( Gowan) and Acaramite/Floramite (Uniroyal)
(3) Seed Corn Maggot: Melons and Spinach.
Mark Van Gessel, Weed Scientist, reports: We requested and received Sec. 18 for Reflex on snap beans, stinger on peaches, Sandea on cucumbers, Dual Magnum on Spinach, Sprout-Nip on Spinach, Command on Watermelons, Sinbar on Watermelons. In addition my program continues to screen potential herbicides for use on sweet corn, lima beans, and snap beans.
(provided by Amy Brown)
MID-ATLANTIC INFORMATION NETWORK FOR PESTICIDES AND ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES
Maryland Progress Report January 1 - August 3, 2001
Crop profiles on potatoes and on muskmelons are in progress. The initial templates were completed and have been through the first review.
Pesticide issues of importance to the state have been initiated and discussed at monthly meetings of the Governoršs Pesticide Council. The Council includes representatives from the agricultural community; the environmental community; local government; pesticide and pest control industries; public health; education; the Maryland Departments of Agriculture, Health and Mental Hygiene, Environment, and Natural Resources; the state legislature; and the general public.
Pesticide Notes, a monthly newsletter on topics of timely interest, has been issued monthly. The newsletter is posted on the Maryland Pesticide Education and Assessment Program (PEAP) web site, and subscribers are notified of the posting. Pesticide-related information, publications, and reports have been circulated to Maryland pesticide researchers and Extension personnel. New links have been added to the PEAP web site.
Presentations have been made at the following conferences:
- Epidemiology Seminar Series, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
- Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA.
- Quest for a Viable Endangered Species Program. Albuquerque, NM.
- Western Region Pesticide Conference. Portland, OR.
- National Certification and Training Workshop. San Antonio, TX.
(provided by Patricia Hastings)
Crop Profiles
We finalized arrangements with selected commodity specialists.to produce crop profiles for apples and green pepper for New Jersey.
Staff assembled selected data for the green pepper for use in the profile; data collected included 1997 State pesticide usage, Section 24C and Section 18 registration information for New Jersey, and both commodity and State statistics from the National Agricultural Statistics Service for 1997. Further, we compiled an assortment of templates and guidelines for profile production based on other crop profiles we have produced for New Jersey.
Candidate commodity specialists for wheat and carrot crop profiles for New Jersey are currently under consideration. We anticipate to finalize arrangements for these two crop profiles by the close of this first quarter in August.
NJinPAS Advisory Committee
We have initially identified approximately 25 advisors to the NJinPAS; they include representatives from Rutgers Cooperative Extension, research faculty, NJ State partners, commodity organizations, grower groups, and public and environmental interest groups. The preliminary roster of Advisor(s) is representative of the diversity of NJinPAS stakeholders, with the exception of advisor that are pesticide registrants. We plan to confirm an appropriate candidate pesticide registrant prior to the first meeting of the NJinPAS Advisory Committee.
Advisory Committee contact information has been compiled into a database. Letters of confirmation will be produced for receipt in mid-August . The first meeting of the NJinPAS Advisory Committee is targeted for mid-November; facility arrangements are pending.
Pest Management Strategic Plan
Although the NJinPAS Advisory Committee will prioritize future candidate commodity's for address, we determined that peaches will be the first commodity addressed in the Pest Management Strategic Plan (PMSP) that will be produced for this project. We have identified eight commodity and technical specialists to participate in the Peaches PMSP Work Group.
Contact information for the Peaches PMSP has been compiled into a database. Letters of invitation will be produced for receipt in mid-August such that the PMSP Work Group will be assembled shortly thereafter, and work can begin on the draft report.
NJinPAS Coordination & Communication of Activities
We have compiled a preliminary database of more than one hundred stakeholders in the NJinPAS; it includes Extension specialists and agents, Mid-Atlantic partner States, Federal partners, commodity organizations, grower cooperatives, industry, County Commissions, and NJ State agency partners. This infrastructure will be used to distribute information on NJinPAS via category email listservs and mailings.
(Provided by Bill Hoffman)
Pennsylvania Pest Management Information Center Accomplishments
The Pennsylvania Pest Management Information Center reports the following accomplishments since January 1st, 2001:
The Center re-designed it’s website which is available at http://www.pested.psu.edu/infocenter. The new site is easier to use and is updated to reflect the Center’s new name and mission.
Center personnel submitted an article to the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association, which was published in the summer edition of their trade magazine "From The Ground-Up." The title of the article is, "Recent EPA and Pesticide Registrant Actions — How Will The Green Industry Be Affected?"
Center personnel submitted an article to the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association, which was published in the Vegetable And Small Fruit Gazette. The title of the article is, "Recent Pesticide & Pesticide Registrant Actions" and is available at http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/vegcrops/Vegetable_Gazette/2001/may2001.html.
Center personnel submitted an article to the Webmaster of the Pesticide Education Program, which was published as that site’s June monthly feature. The title of the article is, "What Good Is Chlorpyrifos (Lorsban, Dursban)" and is available at http://www.pested.psu.edu/mfjun01.html.
The Center conducted four computer-training sessions for Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Ag Product Inspectors. This training has improved electronic communication to and from these individuals who are at the front lines of pesticide regulation.
The Center provided input to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry regarding the potential benefits of a partnership with www.kellysolutions.com.
The Center submitted the document titled, "Pennsylvania Corn Profile" to the Office of Pest Management Policy for publication in their crop profile database.
County Extension Agents are currently supervising grower review of the Pennsylvania Wine Grape and Pennsylvania Juice Grape profiles.
Center personnel are currently working on three additional crop profiles: Pennsylvania Alfalfa Crop Profile, Pennsylvania Snap Bean Crop Profile, and Pennsylvania Sweet Corn Profile.
The Center has published the results of the 1999 Pennsylvania Soybean & Pennsylvania Potato surveys. This data is available at http://www.pested.psu.edu/tables/arms99opt.asp.
Center cooperators have completed data collection for the 2000 vegetable chemical use surveys. The crops surveyed were snap beans, processing tomatoes, sweet corn, pumpkins and strawberries. The Center will publish this before the end of the calendar year.
The Center published 14 e-mail updates regarding recent EPA and pesticide registrant actions. Copies of these updates are available at: http://www.pested.psu.edu/infocenter/RecentRegulatoryInformation.html.
The Center posted 28 new EPA tolerance announcements on its Website. These announcements are available at:
- Agronomic Crop Announcements: http://www.pested.psu.edu/infocenter/AgronomicCrops.html
- Fruit CropAnnouncements:
http://www.pested.psu.edu/infocenter/FruitCrops.html- Vegetable Crop Announcements:
http://www.pested.psu.edu/infocenter/VegetableCrops.htmlThe Center cooperated with the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management Program to improve stakeholder access to pest management recommendations. The two groups worked together to update the "IPM Problem Solver," which is available at http://www.cas.psu.edu/docs/CASDEPT/IPM/problemSolv.html. This project is partially sponsored by the Center and is available directly from the Center’s new home page http://www.pested.psu.edu/infocenter.
Center personnel published an electronic version of the carcinogen classifications of pesticides, now available at http://www.pested.psu.edu/fqpacancdef.htm. This information is only available from the EPA in a hard copy form. For this reason, the Center published this information electronically on the World Wide Web.
(Provided by Jack Baniecki)
We are in the process of reviewing a survey of West Virginia Problem Weeds with nonchemical and chemical recommendations. Rakesh Chandran, IPM Coordinator and Weed Specialist and Extension agents throughout West Virginia provided input.
A survey for collecting pest, pesticide and alternatives on tomato has been sent to tomato growers in the state. Data will be summarized upon receipt of their responses. This data will be incorporated into the crop profile for West Virginia.
The committee for strategic planning has been selected and we are in the process of designating a location to meet in the near future.
West Virginia will meet with other northeast states in August to exchange program ideas amongst counterparts in the region and to strengthen and improve the overall quality of the West Virginia program.
A new EPA grant will enable a consortium led by the Pennsylvania IPM Program (PA IPM) to better integrate IPM into Pennsylvania schools.
The consortium includes the Pennsylvania Departments of Agriculture, Education and Health as well as the Colleges of Agriculture and Education at Penn State whose purpose is to promote IPM implementation for school buildings and grounds as well as incorporate IPM principles into the public school curriculum.
The new grant is part of the EPA's 2001 Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Grants (PESP) program and has several objectives. The grant will enable PA IPM to organize a state-level School IPM Advisory Panel to build a partnership for implementation of IPM in schools. Additionally, it will establish partnerships with cooperators in other EPA regions, give templates for local teamwork required for IPM implementation and allow operational use of the new PA School IPM manual as well as Pennsylvania School Board Association's model IPM policy in local implementation.
Access the complete press release at http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/newsreleases/NRschoolepagrant.htm
We have identified leadership for Commodity Working Groups but as far as I know have not progressed in identifying and recruiting CWG members. I sent a message on 7/30/01 to the CWG leaders asking that they produce 'recruiting lists' by 8/15/01. One reason activation of these groups is important because the priorities they develop will be useful in addressing the next round of RFPs (requests for proposals from various funders).
Some web pages you might find useful and interesting:
USDA's PLANTS Database is a single source of standardized information about plants. This database includes names, checklists, automated tools, identification information, species abstracts, distributional data, crop information, plant symbols, plant growth data, plant materials information, plant links, references, and other plant information. PLANTS reduces costs by minimizing duplication and making information exchange possible across agencies and disciplines. http://plants.usda.gov/plants/home_page.html
Article in Issues in Science and Technology: "Needed: A National Center for Biological Invasions""A new coordinating body is essential to the success of nonindigenous species prevention and management efforts." http://bob.nap.edu/issues/17.4/schmitz.htm
USDA White paper: "Host-Pathogen Interactions Common Defense Mechanisms in Animals and Plants" Summary: We propose a new concept for research on pests and diseases, one that takes advantage of the commonality of host-pathogen interactions and defense mechanisms among plants, animals, and insects. http://www.reeusda.gov/1700/whatnew/whtpapers/Paper1.htm
NE PMC Coordinator Jim VanKirk will attend the Western Region PMC in Reno Aug. 28 and 29, followed by a workshop on developing PMSPs on the 30th. In the short time pest management centers have been in existence, the value of sharing information and ideas among 4 distinct regional centers has already been proven.
Leaders of the national pest management center system will meet in Washington, D.C. on 9/25-27. Part of this meeting will be in conjunction with the National IPM Committee meeting (tentatively) on the 27th and 28th.
Insider is sent to NE PMC Advisory Council members; NE PMC Information Network project leaders; NE PMC IPM Commodity Working Group members; IPM Coordinators in the Northeast; subscribers to PMC-L. Email Jim or Liz to suggest changes.
Jim VanKirk, Coordinator 315-787-2378 jrv1@cornell.edu
John Ayers, Director 814-865-7776 (voice) email
Liz Thomas, Information Specialist 315-787-2626 egt3@cornell.edu
This page created Aug. 3, 2001
Centers for Pest Management are sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture
This page developed and managed by Jim VanKirk, NE PMC Coordinator
Logo designed by Karen English-Loeb, New York IPM Program