| Issue date: Oct-Dec 2004 |
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| For more info and on sudden oak death, |
Outreach newsSee also latest news on sudden oak death below. Public school districts learning toreduce pesticide risks to children Gone are the days when the school custodian casually reached into the broom closet for a can of insecticide spray to kill a column of unwanted ants slurping up a spilled soda. “California’s school districts are making more intelligent decisions about how they control pests,” says Chris Geiger, a former research scientist at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) who conducted a study on integrated pest management (IPM) in California public schools (see page 235).
 Recent research supports the need for IPM in schools. In July, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported a significant increase in the number of acute illnesses associated with pesticide exposure among students and school employees nationwide (from 1998 through 2002). It recommended implementation of IPM practices and other measures to ensure reduced exposure to toxic chemicals in school settings.California is among 17 states that have already passed legislation to address the issue. The Healthy Schools Act (HSA) of 2000 (AB 2260) calls upon public school districts throughout the state to identify IPM coordinators, maintain pesticide use records, notify parents and staff, and post before-and-after warnings of pesticide treatments. Although the law does not specifically require IPM practices, their use is encouraged through an educational effort spearheaded by DPR, which frequently turns to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) for expertise.IPM training for schools Mary Louise Flint, UC IPM publications director, says UC materials have been incorporated in DPR’s curriculum and Web site for district IPM coordinators. At a spring 2005 workshop for nearly 50 IPM coordinators in Butte County, the UC IPM program debuted an interactive train-the-trainer presentation for ant control, a prevalent pest problem in schools. After a demonstration, each participating school district received a DVD containing presentation materials, templates for handouts and activities to train their own employees. “We discussed ant biology, food preferences and management strategies, emphasizing simple changes in everyday activities that can prevent ant invasions in the first place,” Flint says. “Participants learned how to set up bait stations and practiced caulking on props to simulate sealing up cracks to keep ants out of school buildings.”UC IPM will be taking its train-the-trainer efforts to school districts again next year with programs on IPM for weeds and cockroaches, and general IPM principles. Along with Flint and several advisory committees of experts, UC IPM interactive learning developer Cheryl Reynolds and computer systems manager Joyce Strand have been involved in the development of these materials.Less-toxic practices Geiger’s study, conducted in 2002, found that under the HSA California public schools are making progress toward an IPM approach, but he found differences between larger, urban schools and smaller, rural schools. In addition, preliminary results from a more recent survey conducted by DPR in 2004 show continued to progress. “The most important thing,” Geiger says, “is that compliance has continued to increase.” Belinda Messenger, a DPR research scientist analyzing the 2004 data, says 64% of the districts surveyed are now in full compliance with the law, up from 50% in 2002. “We found really high compliance (92%) with use of warning signs before and after spraying,” she says. “We also found 68% of the school districts have adopted an IPM program.”Messenger attributes the higher success rates to the ongoing workshops and pressure from parents. As of September 2005, about 39% of the state’s approximately 1,000 school districts had sent personnel to a workshop. A faculty lounge poster is also being developed to encourage teachers not to use sprays on their own.Geiger described the hands-on training program as very effective, especially given its small budget. “It’s quality over quantity,” he says. “The university’s role is absolutely essential. UC IPM is the only program of its kind that provides a central repository of peer-reviewed, science-based information.”— John Stumbos Back to top Survey seeks to improve sudden oak death outreach Established in coastal California counties from Monterey to Humboldt, the pathogen that causes sudden oak death prefers cool, wet climates and is spread by raindrops, infected plant material and people. “That’s why it’s so important that we get the word out about how to prevent the spread of this dangerous pathogen,” says Janice Alexander, sudden oak death outreach coordinator for the California Oak Mortality Task Force (COMTF) and UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Formed in 2000 and supported by state and federal agencies, COMTF is a nonprofit organization devoted to sudden oak death research, management, education and public policy. The organization has about 1,000 members from about 80 groups comprising other nonprofits, public agencies and private interests. Working together, COMTF and UCCE have developed educational resources that include a comprehensive Web site, training sessions and monthly newsletters.To evaluate and improve sudden oak death education and outreach efforts, COMTF and UCCE Marin County conducted a statewide survey in April 2005. “We wanted to know how well we were reaching our audiences,” says COMTF vice-chair Susan Frankel, manager of the U.S. Forest Service Sudden Oak Death Research Program in Albany.
Sudden oak death is caused by Phytophthora ramorum, an oomycete or water mold that resembles a fungus but is actually more closely related to downy mildews and potato blight. First seen in Marin County a decade ago, sudden oak death is now found in wildlands in 14 coastal California counties and one in southwest Oregon. In addition, the pathogen that causes the disease is found in nurseries across the United States and Europe. The disease gets its name from the fact that infected oak canopies can turn brown within weeks, and the trees can ultimately die. P. ramorum infects a variety of host plants that carry and spread the pathogen but are not killed by it, including California bay laurel, Coast redwood and common nursery plants such as rhododendrons and camellias.The outreach survey was posted online for a month and targeted people who are already concerned and knowledgeable about sudden oak death, including nursery professionals, arborists, homeowners, government resource specialists and UCCE Master Gardeners. “Part of the challenge in getting the word out is the diversity of those who need to know,” Frankel says. Overall, the response to the survey was positive. “It validated what we’ve already done,” Alexander says. More than 90% of the 302 respondents said information about the disease was easily accessible, and the primary source of this information was the COMTF Web site. In addition, the training sessions were useful to nearly all of the 65% of respondents who had attended them. Moreover, based on what they learned about P. ramorum, nearly 90% of private sector respondents had changed their business practices (by, for example, disinfecting tools and other equipment after working with infected trees) and 80% also changed their personal practices (by, for example, washing their shoes and car tires when leaving infested areas).The survey was used to identify further outreach needs. “We got lots of concrete suggestions,” Alexander says. “It was like brainstorming with people.” The suggestions included providing more information on how to distinguish P. ramorum from common look-alike diseases such as root rot and bacterial wetwood, and coordinating outreach efforts with state and local parks in infested areas. Alexander also wants to increase outreach to nurseries. “The pathogen has a huge economic impact on nurseries because a positive find means destroying all the neighboring plants in the block,” she says. So far, nurseries have destroyed 1.6 million plants nationwide due to P. ramorum infections.Controlling the pathogen in nurseries is challenging because it thrives in the shady, moist conditions that are also preferred by the ornamental host plants. Sanitary measures include keeping host plants in smaller blocks and separating them with nonhost plants, making sure water does not drip from above and splash on leaves, and keeping plants on gravel instead of soil, where the pathogen can lie dormant for months.However, these measures are not foolproof. “Some nurseries have had a hard time eradicating the pathogen and it’s a big mystery why,” says Alexander. “There’s still a lot we don’t know about how the disease spreads and establishes.”— Robin Meadows |
The UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) is working with the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to train school-based IPM coordinators in less-toxic pest control methods. Top to bottom, a school IPM coordinator applies boric acid powder to cabinet voids in the school kitchen, monitors for pests, places sticky traps for roaches and caulks to exclude ants.
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