|
This project
is a collaborative effort between the Massachusetts
Department of Agricultural Resources and UMass Extension
Agriculture and Landscape Program funded by USDA/APHIS
(United States Department of Agriculture/ Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service). The overall
goals of the project are to increase awareness about
introduced pests among professional and trade groups
in agriculture, horticulture, and government, and
to use this heightened awareness to prevent the introduction
of new, potentially invasive, exotic pests, including
plants, arthropods, and pathogens into Massachusetts.
The means to develop these goals are as follows:
• Develop an educational network to facilitate movement
of information about introduced pests to the target
audience. Existing email lists, newsletters, and newly
created email listservs will be used for informing
people about new pests that have been found in Massachusetts.
Organizations in this network include extension agencies
aimed at growers and green industry, forestry, and
land management associations.
• Educate target audience to the invasive species
issue and give them the resources to identify new,
potentially invasive, exotic pests that are at high
risk to be introduced into Massachusetts. Education
will be through presentations at conferences and the
website.
• Develop a website to give information on identifying
priority pests and to host a web-based reporting system
for early detection of new pests. The output from
this reporting system will be used by the DAR to track
new pest introductions.
• Create PowerPoint presentations on introduced pests
for trade meetings and conferences. The content of
these presentations will include background information
on invasive species, highlight cases of introduced
pests that had a significant impact (e.g Chestnut
blight), and give resources for identification of
new, potentially invasive pests.
Please contact Jennifer Forman Orth (617) 626-1735 if you have any questions
about this project or comments on the website.
Click here
for a pdf flyer describing the features of the website. |
