Almond pest management team to receive major award at ESA meeting

Zalom, who directed the UC IPM Program for 16 years (1988-2001), will receive his ESA Fellow award at the same awards ceremony, as will UC Davis entomologist Michael Parrella.

The Pest Management Alliance (PMA), a partnership that included the Almond Board of California, UC Cooperative Extension, the UC IPM Program, the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Almond Hullers and Processors Association, and Community Alliance with Family Farmers, was first launched in 1998 while Zalom was director of UC IPM.

Team members conducted a massive research and demonstration project for six to eight years (1998-2005) in the state's primary almond-growing areas: Stanislaus County (six years) and Kern and Butte counties (eight years). California leads the nation in almond production, with some 700,000 acres.

PMA's findings appear in the publication, Seasonal Guide to Environmentally Responsible Pest Management Practices for Almonds. Written by Pickel, Bentley, Viveros, Duncan and Connell, the publication offers a combination of biological, cultural and reduced risk alternatives. The guide outlines monitoring techniques and economic thresholds for using reduced-risk pesticides and specifies when to use broad-spectrum insecticides.

The team "developed an excellent research and extension team to develop and deliver IPM to the almond industry of California," wrote award nominator Peter Goodell, interim director of the UC IPM Program and a longtime UC IPM advisor. For example, PMA research showed that almond growers need not spray for peach twig borer, navel orangeworm and San Jose scale every year.

The Pesticide Use Report, compiled by the Department of Pesticide Regulation, showed a 77 percent reduction in pesticide use during the Almond Pest Management Alliance's active years, Goodell noted. "Much of this pesticide reduction was in dormant applications of diazinon and chloropyrophos (Lorsban), organophosphate insecticides that have been implicated in pollution of waterways from runoff of treated orchards."

The team delivered the program through extension channels, including classroom sessions, field demonstrations, hands-on training, farmer and pest control advisor (PCA) schools, and printed and Web-based products.

The Almond Board of California mailed a copy of the guide to every commercial almond grower in the state. In addition, the Blue Diamond Growers, the largest grower cooperative in California, mailed a copy to each of its grower members. (The guide can be downloaded from the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Web page at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/21619.pdf.)

The PMA-developed program forms the basis of the Natural Resources Conservation Service program in almonds. In addition, the USDA Farm Service Agency's Environmental Quality Incentives Program offers almond growers $125 per acre if they base their pest management program on the guide.