Northeastern IPM Center: Small Investment, Big Impacts

The Northeastern IPM Center was formed in 2000 to foster the development and adoption of integrated pest management. Since then, we have disbursed more than 220 grants (totaling nearly $7.4 million) for projects that focus on important pest problems and provide economic, environmental, and human health benefits to our region.

The Center is jointly administered by Penn State and Cornell University and is funded through a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We work in partnership with stakeholders from agricultural, urban, and rural settings to identify and address regional priorities for research, education, and outreach.

WHAT WE DO

• Build partnerships to address challenges and opportunities, serving real-world needs of diverse IPM stakeholders and building on existing knowledge to solve problems.
• Establish and maintain information networks that provide broad access to IPM resources and enable people to make informed decisions and reduce risks as they manage pests.
• Evaluate and communicate successes so that the benefits of IPM research, education, and outreach can be more fully understood, promoted, and valued.
• Manage funding resources effectively to ensure that stakeholders receive the greatest possible benefit from public support of IPM research, education, and outreach.

OUR STRENGTHS

• Protecting food supplies and communities. We stay in touch with people's needs, fund projects that target the most important pest problems, and make science-based information available to everyone who contends with pests.
• Making the most of public resources. We help organizations to build on each others' success. An independent review team found that IPM Centers show an impressive use of limited resources to maximize output of projects. In 2006 that review team advised USDA to use IPM Centers as a model for future programs.
• Engaging partners. We serve as a hub where growers, scientists, consumers, government personnel, businesses, and environmental organizations can work together for practices that reduce risks to the environment and human health.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Helping urban residents combat pests. We coordinate a national project to reduce pests in public housing. With funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, we've already taught 200 maintenance and property staff how to manage pests in and around their buildings, and hundreds of tenants are receiving training as well (see our online video). Collaborators on this project include HUD, USDA, EPA, and nearly two dozen agencies and IPM consultants.
• Helping growers protect the environment. Our Center partnered with USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service to train nearly 400 growers, NRCS staff, and Extension educators in practices that minimize environmental impacts and improve crop yield and pest control (http://www.northeastipm.org/nrcs.cfm). Farmers who attended the workshops plan to increase their use of IPM and conservation practices.
• Enhancing sustainability in the marketplace. We collaborate with industry to give IPM growers improved access to markets. The Eco Apple working group helped to boost the market for IPM-grown apples in New England, with sales in 2008 of $1.9 million. We work with SYSCO, a worldwide food distributor that has urged its suppliers to actively support more sustainable environments in the production of food.
• Sharing IPM knowledge with the world: With nearly 3 million hits on our website since 2007, we've reached more than 120,000 visitors. Our most popular tool? The IPM Resources Database containing thousands of science-based IPM publications and information sources.
• Promoting sustainable home landscapes. The Northeastern Community IPM Working Group, funded for years by our Center, focuses on growing green lawns with minimal pesticides. The group placed 150 posters on Maryland buses and displayed landscape posters at the U.S. Botanical Gardens in Washington, DC., where they reached nearly 100,000 visitors.
• Connecting people who have great ideas. Our Center supports the International IPM Symposium with planning, financial assistance, and facilitation. In 2009, more than 700 people from nearly 30 countries attended this event, where they exchanged practical tools and expertise. The Vegetable IPM Working Group, with funding from our Center, awarded 20 IPM Travel Grants, reaching at least 5,000 stakeholders about IPM practices.

More information about the Regional IPM Centers (PDF, 392 KB)