NEERA1004: Northeast Region Technical Committee on Integrated Pest Management
Statement of Issues and Justification
In the northeastern United States, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) encompasses a wide range of activities ranging from IPM in agriculture to school and urban IPM. With global and regional demands to keep food production sustainable, safe, economic, and socially acceptable, IPM plays an integral role in both commercial agricultural operations and non-crop situations to achieve this end.The Extension IPM program established in 1971 with annually earmarked Smith-Lever 3d formula funds to support IPM programming in each state was terminated in 2008. These funds were made available on competitive basis through a grants program administered by USDA-NIFA. IPM Coordinators, based on collaborations with state government agencies, universities, and other federal agencies, have the unique ability to link state-level IPM networks with regional and national IPM networks.
The twelve states in the Northeast have research and extension programs that address IPM. IPM programs are often similar in adjoining states, so collaboration across state lines has always been practiced to a certain extent. The IPM coordinators in the Northeast began meeting as a group informally in the 1980s. As the value of meeting, exchanging information and planning collaborations increased, the informal meetings grew into multi-day formal meetings and included representatives from other agencies (e.g., EPA and state departments of agriculture) and other programs (e.g., SARE). The NEERA 1001 (referred to as Northeast Research, Extension, and Academic Project committee on IPM from 1996 to 2011, and NREC-IPM prior to 1996) was approved by the Northeast Directors in 2001 and is advised by representative research and extension administrators. In 2002, Regional IPM Centers were established in each region by CSREES (former NIFA). NEERA 1001 took on the responsibility of advising the Northeast IPM Center in addition to their regular activities.
The NEERA 1001 group, consisting of members with a broad base of knowledge and expertise, helps to prioritize IPM research and extension projects based on stakeholder needs in the region. With the ongoing changes in federally allocated monies that support agricultural research in land grant universities, multi-state cooperation is expected to play a vital role to maintain strong and viable IPM projects in the region. The NEERA 1001 group, while maintaining close ties with the NE IPM Center at the advisory and functional level, continues to play the distinctive role of spearheading IPM efforts of the region and supporting a regional IPM vision.
We propose that the Northeast Directors approve the extension of NEERA 1001 for five more years.
NEERA 1001 Mission Statement:
The Northeast Region Technical Committee on IPM is responsible for improving communication and cooperation throughout the region between research, extension personnel working on IPM projects. The committee, comprising extension and research representatives from Land Grant Universities in each cooperating state, the EPA and USDA, also plans and promotes the development of multistate IPM research and extension programs, provides oversight on the evaluation and impact of IPM programs, and serves in an advisory capacity to the Northeastern IPM Center.
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