Principal Writer Editor Steve Dreistadt retired this year. “At the annual planning meeting a few years ago, I asked everyone to put up their hands and then drop them as I called out years with IPM,” says Tunyalee Martin. “Steve’s hand was the last to drop.” As the reigning long-time member of UC IPM, Dreistadt started with UC IPM in 1989.
Dreistadt specialized in IPM in ornamentals and landscape plants and biological control. He was an active member of the Floriculture and Nursery ANR Workgroup. Dreistadt’s first few projects included the manuals: Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs (1994) and Natural Enemies Handbook (1998). Other manuals he wrote were IPM for Floriculture and Nurseries (2001), IPM for Avocado (2008), IPM for Citrus (2012), and Forest & Right-of-Way Pest Control (2014). Recently, Dreistadt worked on the substantial revision of Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs: An Integrated Pest Management Guide. This 437-page book is the number three selling ANR publication. In 1994, the first edition of this manual was produced to address the pest management needs of California's growing urban and suburban population. The book was extremely popular and became a study guide for several professional certification programs, including those for arborists and horticulturalists. Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs became a standard reference for UC Master Gardener programs and became a reliable research-based resource available for volunteers who provide much of UC's outreach to urban audiences.
In addition to print manuals, Dreistadt worked on several online tools such as the Natural Enemies Gallery, Year-Round IPM Programs for citrus and grape, the Bee Precautions Pesticide Ratings, and Seasonal Landscape IPM Checklists. The Bee Precautions Pesticide Ratings was a complex project that developed ratings for bee hazards from pesticides. It was compiled through a review of more than 470 scientific publications.
In addition to publications and online tools, Dreistadt organized trips with photographers to add photos to UC IPM’s 100,000 photos database. While the trips might sound like fun, assessing the photos, adding metadata and codes to too many photos to count demonstrates his dedication to his work. When several UC Cooperative Extension advisors retired, UC IPM acquired their career-long photo collections. Dreistadt was instrumental in gauging which photos to keep and provided the information necessary to put them into the photo database. Dreistadt was invited to lecture at UC Davis horticulture and IPM classes, especially on his expertise in forest pests IPM and natural enemies. A man of many talents, he acted in several online courses—as a husband with ants in the kitchen, a teacher in a school with pests, and as a customer looking for IPM solutions.
In 2016, Dreistadt received an ANR STAR award because of his IPM expertise and commitment to providing detailed, scientifically correct and thorough work. Dreistadt adds value to all his work through his knowledge of landscape and agricultural pest management, his ability to keep track of multiple reviewers' changes, his investigative nature to get to the information readers need, and his ability to communicate solutions for pest management accurately yet succinctly through UC IPM's publications. In addition to his expertise, Dreistadt has extraordinary organizational skills. His ability to dig deep into the literature, find and verify the key information, categorize it appropriately and analyze the information into overall results is why he received the award.
At UC IPM and throughout ANR, those who have worked with Dreistadt respect and value his integrity and commitment to communicating high-quality scientific solutions to solve pest problems. Dreistadt’s publication the Natural Enemies Handbook was selected by Choice Magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic titles of 1999, received the Silver Medal from the Agricultural Communicators in Education Association, and was honored as a faculty author selection at the UC Davis Faculty Authors Celebration.
Dreistadt earned a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, a M.S. from UC Berkeley on the monitoring and management of the tulip tree aphid, and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley focusing on the monitoring, management, and specifically biological control of elm leaf beetle.
“As a Principal Editor for UC IPM Steve was a force to be recognized. His expertise in Integrated Pest Management (or IPM) crossed over from urban to agricultural pest topics – but proper pesticide use in urban and nursery systems was his passion. To get the UC IPM manuals completed, such as “Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs,” he was relentless in tracking down the proper facts, updating information, dogging contributors that weren’t contributing, and basically getting the job done. His knowledge, assertiveness and impact will be greatly missed.” —Kent Daane
“No one has done more than Steve Dreistadt to bring the science of integrated pest management to landscape professionals in California. Steve’s comprehensive, rigorously researched, and beautifully illustrated book Pests of Landscape Trees and Shrubs remains the ultimate authority for anyone managing pests in woody ornamentals in California. Steve taught me much during my many years working with him. He was an excellent field entomologist, a good teacher, thorough researcher, and a creative mind. He was always excited to discover something new, and his enthusiasm spilled over to those lucky enough to go out in the field with him. I’ll never forget the activities he developed for the landscape IPM workshops UC IPM sponsored with local UCCE Advisors at the arboretums in Golden Gate Park and in Los Angeles in the 1990s. He set a new standard for hands-on teaching and engaging UCCE Advisors in the process. He also assembled UC IPM’s collection of more than 45 landscape insect and pathogen pest and damage samples, which became an outstanding teaching tool for landscape professionals, UC Master Gardeners, and many others. Steve is a passionate environmentalist and has been ever since I first met him in the 1980s. He rode his bike several miles to work every day. I don’t believe he ever owned a car (although his wife did). He recycled everything carefully and conscientiously. He grew his own food as much as possible and never used toxic chemicals. He was a leader and set a high standard, encouraging all of us to do more.” —Mary Louise Flint, Extension Entomologist Emerita, UC Davis
“I could always count on Steve to immerse himself in the research, know every little detail, and come up with a comprehensive online tool or publication about that subject. He knows and remembers it all.” —Tunyalee Martin
"When I started working for UC IPM and with Steve, I had a lot of IPM-related questions, which Steve patiently responded to. His long emails included everything I needed to know and understand – with context and reasons. I deeply admire Steve’s vast knowledge, diligence, and thoroughness with which he approached every project he has worked on. Steve’s legacy in form of UC IPM publications and tools will be helping Californians for many years.” —Petr Kosina
“Steve is the quintessential scientist: always curious, exacting, and precise. It was a pleasure to work with him knowing that he would always check and double check everything. I know he will continue to stay connected to IPM in the years to come as he finishes up his many projects. But I also think he's ready to travel more, and I look forward to more opportunities to see him around town!” —Barbara Ohlendorf
“I’ve known Steve a majority of my UC career. He is a diligent researcher, an exceptional technical writer and is generous with his knowledge and time. I am fortunate to have worked with Steve and consider him a life-long friend.” —Gale Perez
“I’ve known and worked with Steve for more than 25 years. I’ve always appreciated how careful he is about making sure we are putting out high-quality products and making sure we give proper credit to those who have contributed to them. I’ve always been able to go to Steve when I have questions about something and know that he’ll have a well-thought-out answer for me.”—Cheryl Reynolds
“Steve was one of the core experts who produced so much of the content for the amazingly useful and influential series of UC IPM Integrated Pest Management books for specific settings, including crops and home garden, ornamentals, and landscape settings. To do this well required both great understanding of the underlying biology and ecology, as well as an ability to convey information in the clearest possible manner—and Steve was unparalleled in both of these areas. He was also just a great colleague, always considerate and self-deprecating. He will be sorely missed in the campus IPM community.” —Jay Rosenheim
“Steve brought his passion about IPM to everything he did for us. As a major contributor to so many of the program’s resources, he was always determined to deliver only the best, most complete information available.” —Joyce Strand