The work done here at NPARL has been recognized by others throughout the years, both within the federal government and in other public agencies. Below are links to separate categories that are comprise of individual listings.

USDA Awards | ARS Awards | Other Awards and Recognitions

Beth Redlin received the 2004 Excellence in Information Award in Washington, D.C. on Feb 9, 2005. See article below.

Montana ARS lab earns 2008 Federal Electronics Challenge award

NPARL was recently named a 2008 Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC) Silver Level Award winner and will be recognized at the 2008 FEC Award Ceremonies to take place at the Federal Environmental Symposium (FES) West on June 18 at the Big Sky Resort in Big Sky, MT. The FEC awards, established by the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, recognize the efforts of federal partners to increase their electronic stewardship efforts, with emphasis placed on three areas: purchasing greener electronic products; reducing impacts of electronic products during use, and managing obsolete electronics in an environmentally safe way. NPARL’s FEC award is the first for an ARS laboratory in the Northern Plains Area, and only the second for ARS nationwide. The USDA-ARS Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit in Columbia, MO is the only other ARS award winner, earning both silver and gold awards under the program the previous two years. 

Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab Deemed Outstanding By Federal Laboratory Consortium (2003)

A consortium of federal laboratories selected the Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney, MT, as its 2003 Outstanding Regional Laboratory. The laboratory is under the direction of Dr. Robert Evans and Dr. Thomas Shanower with the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

The Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) has been an active player in Technology Transfer efforts to relay research results and scientific findings. One of its many notable accomplishments is the development of TEAM (The Ecological Area-wide Management) of Leafy Spurge project, a 6-year, 4-state, integrated pest management (IPM) program. In promoting the IPM approach, TLS has distributed more than 48 million biological control insects in 13 states and 3 Canadian provinces, and developed more than 20 informational products, including a website, how-to manuals, CD-ROMs, newspaper articles and a PBS documentary that was selected as a finalist for a Telly Award, the non-network equivalent of the Oscars. 

But TEAM Leafy Spurge is not the only successful Technology Transfer effort underway at NPARL. Other significant projects in the past year include registration of a new patent that has the potential to combat sugar beet leaf spot, development of a new website for the Hoary Cress Consortium, with information on that noxious weed and biological control efforts underway to combat it, and additions to the lab’s existing grasshopper management website that included the posting of regular outbreak maps for the region.

This year, National Geographic Today also featured NPARL’s research work on Mormon cricket band movement in Utah and Colorado. The lab also produces an Internet newsletter of its own entitled “Northern PlainFacts.”

One of its greatest contributions is to the local community. NPARL regularly participates at local and regional ag exhibitions as well as offering school tours, educational exhibits and classroom presentation. The NPARL Weather Network also provides hourly weather information from area sites.

For this exemplary work, the laboratory received an Outstanding Laboratory Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s Mid-Continent and coordinator J. Susan Sprake of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The FLC, formally chartered by Congress in 1986 to promote and strengthen technology transfer activities, is a nationwide network of federal laboratories that strives to link laboratory-developed technologies and expertise with the private sector. More than 700 major federal laboratories and centers and their parent departments and agencies are FLC members. The Mid-Continent region of the FLC includes fourteen states and over 100 laboratories.

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