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Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP) Grants - June 2000

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA --  School Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the Northeast region is quickly becoming a reality, as three state programs have been awarded Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop IPM curriculum, an IPM program for school grounds and a structural IPM program. The grants will benefit the entire Northeast region, as all the states will share the information. Integrated Pest Management is the modern approach to managing pests such insects, plant disease, weed, rodents, etc. IPM employs methods that are safe for the environment and human health.

The Pennsylvania IPM (PA IPM) program is in charge of developing IPM curriculum for grades K-12. PA IPM, a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and The Pennsylvania State University, is developing curricula that will meet the proposed IPM in schools academic standards. "Academic standards specify what students need to know and to do in a core set of subjects. The state is currently reviewing standards within science and technology as well as the newly proposed standards for environment and ecology," says Lyn Garling of PA IPM.

In New Jersey, Dr. George Hamilton and Debbie Smith-Fiola of the New Jersey IPM (NJ IPM) program were successful in obtaining PESP funding recently to develop IPM criteria for school grounds. "We will be bringing together experts on turf and ornamental IPM from the Northeast to help establish the criteria," Hamilton explains. The NJ IPM program will also establish an IPM checklist, an IPM resource list and an awareness brochure. The brochure and criteria will be sent out to all school systems in the Northeast.

New Jersey IPM will also be training school personnel responsible for conducting or contracting exterior pest control on school grounds. "We are making the training available to all schools in the Northeast," Hamilton says. The goal is to have the criteria, brochures, checklist and resource list established by August 2001, and the training completed by 2002. "We want to compliment the curriculum and structural programs that are being developed so that all states in the Northeast can benefit," says Hamilton.

As part of their component of this regional effort, Craig Hollingsworth and Bill Coli in Massachusetts are developing School IPM Guidelines for interior pests.  Over the past several months,  Hollingsworth has worked with a group of key industry and public advocacy stakeholders to develop and publish IPM Guidelines for structural pests in their state.  Through ongoing contacts with collaborators in other states, the concepts from this document are now being integrated into a document that will be broadly applicable to schools throughout the northeast.

The Massachusetts grant recipients have also assisted Kathy Murray of the Maine Department of Agriculture in conducting a survey in her state to determine a baseline of pest management practices now in use in Maine schools.  Coli and his colleagues are currently conducting a similar survey of 300 Massachusetts schools in cooperation with the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MassPIRG), and plan to compile the results of these and other surveys from the northeast to define pest management baseline information regionally.

Coli notes that legislation was recently enacted and signed by the Governor that mandates IPM be used in all Massachusetts public or private schools, day care centers or school-age child care facilities.  "We're thrilled that these grants have been awarded by EPA to the three land grant so that we can all share very timely information and educational materials.  The EPA funding couldn't cone at a better time.

To find out more about IPM in schools, contact the PA IPM program at (814) 865-2839 or check out our web site at  http://paipm.cas.psu.edu.