2012 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report

From the director

Welcome to UC IPM’s 2012 Highlights annual report. With its many accomplishments and activities, our program continued its long tradition of developing and promoting the use of sound pest management programs to protect California’s economy, environment, and peoples’ health.

It’s been exciting to see significant growth in our ability to conduct research and deliver IPM programs. Entomologist Andrew Sutherland joined us as an IPM advisor to serve Bay Area urban interests. We hired Shimat Joseph, also an entomologist, as an IPM advisor for Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties. Vonny Barlow, an entomology advisor in Riverside County, and Surendra Dara, a farm advisor in San Luis Obispo County, are now affiliated with us as well.

While UC IPM continues to develop strong IPM programs for agriculture and urban communities, I am very pleased that we are also expanding our efforts in natural resources. A newly appointed stakeholder advisory committee is helping us focus on high priority programs and find means to protect California natural resources from pests.

We are proud of our new products that include videos, books, and shorter publications about using IPM. Our staff developed and updated publications and continued to improve and enhance the UC IPM Web site, including its recent major face-lift. The site’s high traffic volume attests to the quality, depth, and relevance of the science-based solutions we promote. We’ve also expanded our training programs to include such topics as pesticide safety, reducing water quality problems in urban areas, and preventing and managing glyphosate-resistant weeds.

I want to thank Walt Bentley, area IPM advisor, and Buz Dreyer, programmer, who retired after serving UC IPM and the University of California for more than 30 years each. Walt served as an exceptional farm and IPM advisor not only for UC IPM but for the fruit and nut tree industries; he also served as associate director for agricultural IPM. Buz made a tremendous contribution to our online products and the Web site. We will miss their leadership, input, and energy.

Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the contributions and hard work of our extraordinary faculty and staff who deserve the credit for the program’s exceptional achievements in 2012.

—Kassim Al-Khatib, Director

> Next article: Western IPM Center joins ANR