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Spotlight on Connecticut IPM

Massachusetts IPM budget cut

Highlights from other states:
* Maine potato IPM game
* New York honeybee research
* Vermont apple website
* West Virginia weather stations

Managing house flies on Delaware dairy farms

For more information on IPM in the Northeast, visit our website at northeastipm.org or contact regional IPM facilitator, Jim VanKirk (315.787.2378; jrv1@cornell.edu), or information specialist Liz Thomas (315.787.2626; egt3@cornell.edu) NYS IPM Program Office, NYSAES, 630 W. North Street, Geneva, NY 14456. Publication supported by CSREES, USDA, special project number 99-34103-7391. Writing and design: Elizabeth Myers (315-787-2624; ebm24@cornell.edu).

Spotlight on Connecticut IPM

Connecticut’s IPM program is led by Dr. Richard Ashley, a plant scientist who has just completed a term as chair of the Northeast Research, Extension, and Academic Program Committee (NEREAP). Dr. Ashley’s program, located at the University of Connecticut, faces the same challenges as those in many states that do not provide significant funding for IPM efforts. The program relies on federal Smith-Lever 3(d) funds as a major ongoing source of support, and is also fortunate to receive steady funding from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

But with increasing costs and a relatively small funding base, the program must stretch its limited resources and work hard to maintain its strength. Despite these challenges, the program continues to provide innovative IPM support to its stakeholders. Ashley attributes the program’s continued strength to the outstanding people on the Connecticut IPM team, who raise their own funding through competitive grants, making IPM research and extension possible even though resources are not easy to come by.

Connecticut IPM is in the process of launching a major new program to educate the public in implementation of IPM. Supported by private funding ($600,000 over six years!), this effort will focus on helping the public understand how IPM relates to their environmental concerns. The program will show people how to minimize the environmental impacts of pest management, which is especially important in a state where agricultural, urban, and suburban areas coexist in close proximity. The long-term nature of the funding is particularly valuable to ensuring that the effort can be sustained over time.

The state’s IPM education effort is multifaceted. An adult education component includes online courses and work with master gardeners. IPM specialists are also working with teachers to integrate IPM into the public school K-12 curricula, where games and problem-solving techniques can help students understand biodiversity and the definitions of pests, as well as avoid the use of pesticides. IPM can be an excellent "real-world" example demonstrating the basic principles of subjects such as biology, economics, and sociology. The program’s educational curricula are also being extended outside the school context to 4-H and Boy and Girl Scouts programs.