Workshop/Conference Reports for the Western IPM Center

WRPMC Workshop: Bridging Pest Management Solutions
Date: August 28-29, 2001
Location: Reno, Nevada

The Western Region Pest Management Workshop was held August 28-29, 2001 in Reno, Nevada. The workshop was attended by sixty-five individuals representing a variety of pest management entities including growers, commodity organizations, Integrated Pest Management, IR-4, Sustainable Agriculture, Pesticide Applicator Safety, USDA, EPA, colleges and universities, registrants, extension personnel and researchers.

Differing Perspectives. The first day of the workshop provided differing perspectives on a wide range of pest management strategies relevant to western agriculture. Time was provided during the meeting for interaction among the participants. This meeting was successful in bringing together pest management stakeholders throughout the western region. The western region was well represented geographically with participation from Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Micronesia, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Breakout Sessions. The second day of our workshop consisted of three breakout sessions led by facilitators. The topics of these sessions were "Communication Strategies," "Roadmap for the Pest Management Centers" and "Agroecological Centers — What are the boundaries?" A lot of excellent ideas were recorded from these sessions.

At the end of the day, each facilitator provided a short presentation highlighting some of the information gathered in their sessions to all the participants during the workshop wrap-up. Since the participants represented a wide variety of pest management entities, the process was strengthened resulting in very useful guidance to the Center. The document will be forwarded to USDA by the Western Region Pest Management Center as stakeholder input into the regional center concept. The document resulting from this workshop is available upon request.

Strategic Plan Workshop. A Pest Management Strategic Plan Workshop was held in Reno on August 30, 2001. Several commodity representatives and pest management center state project leaders attended. Those present were provided with the means to organize, conduct and write a pest management strategic plan.