Northeastern IPM Center

Non-Technical Summary: <BR>To foster IPM development and adoption, the Northeastern IPM Center will build on successes and launch new projects. With broad-based stakeholder participation, we will prioritize issues, create a strategic plan, facilitate collaboration across states, disciplines, and regions, and continue our information networks (including a state-of-the-art website, robust listservs, and a grants database). We will build capacity with eXtension and share Pest Alerts and success stories. Our 2012 IPM Partnership Grants Program will focus on working groups and critical pests, encouraging project directors to address underserved audiences, food availability, and food accessibility. We will foster sustainability of regional food supplies by strengthening support for small farms and by joining with federal and private partners to sponsor a conference on IPM, Organic, and Sustainable Ag to Bolster Food Security. We will lead outreach to the region on the invasive brown marmorated stink bug, working with scientists to share new knowledge via the StopBMSB website, curricula, and displays. We will strengthen underserved communities by leading and participating in IPM trainings and workshops for public housing authorities and tribal housing, enhancing the StopPests website, and offering our new Guide to IPM in Public Housing in print and online. We will network internationally by attending the OECD workshop and the International IPM Symposium. A midterm NIFA review of our Center should provide an opportunity for self-assessment, constructive stakeholder input, and further interaction with USDA. Overall, our Center will increase coordination of IPM research, education, and extension, and will enhance responsiveness to global food security challenges. <P> Approach: <BR> We will accomplish these goals through the work of staff, participation of advisory groups, active partnerships, the use of communication and information systems, and funded projects. Specifically, to build partnerships to address challenges (Objective 1), we will work closely with our diverse Advisory Council and Steering Committee, holding an annual meeting for each; we will work with and fund up to 10 IPM Working Groups that meet specific needs in the region; we will reach out to state IPM coordinators, 1890 institutions, and other partners through meetings, phone calls, and eXtension; and we will set priorities through working groups, IPM documents, and our Advisory Council and Steering Committee. To establish and maintain interactive information networks (Objective 2), we will provide stakeholders with IPM information and broaden awareness of regional resources, reaching diverse IPM audiences and engaging key groups, including pest managers, regulatory agencies, policy makers, land-grant researchers and faculty, 1890s schools, nonprofit groups, and information multipliers such as Extension staff, grower groups, and others. Our primary communication and networking tools include a website (NortheastIPM.org), with cross-linkages to more than 180 IPM-related organizations; email news (via listserv) distributed directly to approximately 3,500 stakeholders; print newsletters and publications delivered to more than 4,100 regional contacts; interactive media outreach via webinars, RSS, Facebook, and Twitter; and workshops, conferences, and other opportunities for face-to-face engagement. In 2011, we will develop an interim Communications Plan in conjunction with our organizational strategic planning process. To develop signature Global Food Security Programs (Objective 3), we will help find solutions to food availability and accessibility, educate the region about invasive species (notably, the brown marmorated stink bug), strengthen our capacity for regional impact, dovetail with signature projects of other regional IPM centers, and strengthen the underserved to promote healthy communities. To review and evaluate the impacts of IPM implementation, and communicate successes (Objective 4), we will manage projects to yield impacts (e.g., IPM Training in PHAs and Brown Marmorated Stink Bug projects), document outcomes via rigorous reporting requirements, aggregate and synthesize existing information, generate new knowledge, and communicate positive outcomes to stakeholders. To manage funding resources effectively (Objective 5), we will oversee the Northeast Regional IPM (NE-IPM) Competitive Grants Program and the IPM Partnerships Grants Program, which emphasizes collaborative, priority-setting extension projects. In doing so, we will ensure that regional priorities are reflected in research, extension, and outreach and that the related processes, including communication with project investigators, are managed fairly.