Tree Fruit IPM Working Group: Overview

Funded in 2010, the Tree Fruit Working Group is working to

• identify priority fruit IPM needs and issues in the northeast region;
• foster greater regional collaborations in IPM programs and expertise;
• develop and adopt new IPM guidelines, management guides or pest alert systems; and
• share current and new IPM technologies, research results, and extension efforts during the annual meeting organized on a rotating basis among the member institutions, as well as through electronic (online) proceedings of these meetings.

Such outcomes, along with documentation of the impacts of successful fruit IPM strategies on human (including economic) and environmental (including water quality) health, are increasingly relevant to sustainable fruit production and quality of life in the Northeast and will help to link regional fruit IPM objectives to the goals of the National IPM Roadmap. Membership includes fruit workers (research and extension scientists: entomologists, pathologists, horticulturists, plus extension educators, industry advisors and IPM pest managers) from New York, New England, Canada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and/or West Virginia.