Kathy Anderson and Roger Duncan, UC ANR Cooperative Extension advisors in Stanislaus County, have won the Integrated Pest Management Innovator Award from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. They are one of four groups that DPR honored.
"The 2015 IPM Innovator Awards demonstrate that Californians put a lot of time and effort into pest prevention techniques that can reduce the use of pesticides," said Tom Babb, DPR environmental program manager. "This year's award winners are steering change in urban and agricultural pest management while still protecting valuable crops and wildlife."
Anderson and Duncan were honored for leading the Tree & Vine IPM Breakfast Group. The Stanislaus County group focuses on improving the management of diseases and insect pests using IPM practices. They hold regular hands-on training sessions from March through June for local growers and pest control professionals. For the last 20 years, they have devised ways to respond quickly to new and emerging pests like anthracnose and bacterial spot diseases of almond, and branch wilt and Bot canker diseases in walnuts. They have also helped to develop methods for early detection of pests such as spotted wing drosophila, which attacks several fruits including cherries, raspberries and blueberries.
The awards were presented at a ceremony on Jan. 28 at the California Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Sacramento.
Steve Fennimore, UC ANR Cooperative Extension weed specialist based in Salinas, was honored by California Weed Science Society. Fennimore was recognized for managing a large group of authors who wrote chapters for “Principles of Weed Control,” Fourth Edition, an electronic and print CWSS publication.
Fennimore “did a great job managing all of the editors, drafts, publication options and inevitable issues” to put together an excellent textbook on weed management, said past CWSS board president Rick Miller, who presented the award.
Fennimore received the award at the society's annual meeting in Sacramento on Jan. 14.
Frank Zalom, UC ANR Cooperative Extension integrated pest management specialist and professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, is a newly selected fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, London.
Zalom served as president of the Entomological Foundation in 2015 as it transitioned to a formal affiliation with the Entomological Society of America. He has been heavily involved in research and leadership in integrated pest management activities at the state, national and international levels. He directed the UC Statewide IPM Program for 16 years (1986-2002).
Zalom, who received his doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, focuses his research on California specialty crops, including tree crops (almonds, olives, prunes, peaches), small fruits (grapes, strawberries, caneberries) and fruiting vegetables (tomatoes), as well as on international IPM programs.
The IPM strategies and tactics Zalom has developed include monitoring procedures, thresholds, pest development and population models, biological controls and use of less-toxic pesticides that have become standard in practice and that are part of the UC IPM Guidelines for these crops.
The Zalom lab has responded to a number of important pest invasions in the last decade, with research projects on glassy-winged sharpshooter, olive fruit fly, a new biotype of greenhouse whitefly, invasive saltcedar, light brown apple moth and spotted wing drosophila. They are currently working on two pest problems recently discovered in California, grapevine red blotch associated virus and brown marmorated stink bug.
The Royal Entomological Society, founded in 1833, plays a national and international role in disseminating information about insects and improving communication among entomologists. – Kathy Keatley Garvey
