Core 4 Pest Management

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Core 4 Pest Management

• Joseph K. Bagdon
• USDA - NRCS
• National Water and Climate Center

2
Core 4 Pest Management

• Our goal is to integrate weed, insect and disease
  management with
• Conservation Tillage/Residue Management
• Crop Nutrient Management
• Conservation Buffers
• and other Conservation Practices

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Pest Management Integration

• Residue Management
• Reduces erosion and runoff
• Increases organic matter and microbial activity
• Nutrient Management
• Optimizes growth
• Conservation Buffers
• Capture sediment
• Increase infiltration

4
NRCS Pest Management

• A component of a Conservation Plan
• Based on the Pest Management Standard
• Specifications in Pest Management Job Sheet
• To help support Core 4
• Revising NRCS Pest Management Policy
• Revising National Pest Management Standard
• Developed new Pest Management Job Sheet

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NRCS Pest Management Goals

• The pest management component of a conservation
  plan should
• enhance crop quality and quantity
• minimize negative impacts to identified resource
  concerns, including
• Monitoring identified impaired/threatened
  resources
• TMDL - SDWA concerns
• EPA State Pesticide Management Plan
  implementation

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NRCS Pest Management Policy

• Available Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
  Programs must be utilized
• IPM principles are strongly encouraged when full
  IPM programs are not available
• The pest management component of the conservation
  plan must be fully integrated with pest
  management recommendations
• Extension, CCAs, ICCs, PCAs, etc. make pest
  management recommendations, not NRCS

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NRCS Pest Management Training

• Core 4 Training
• Extension and state agency training in pest
  management and pesticide applicator safety
• Certified Crop Advisor Program
• Comprehensive self-paced study course entitled
  Nutrient and Pest Management Considerations in a
  Conservation Management System Plan

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Core 4 Pest Management Training

• NRCS Policy
• Integrated Pest Management
• Environmental Risks of Pest Management
• Pest Management Standard
• Pest Management Job Sheet
• Integrating Pest Management into the Conservation
  Plan

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Pest Management Policy

• NRCSs primary role is to help producers
  understand the environmental impacts associated
  with different pest control options, so they can
  incorporate environmental risk into their pest
  management decision-making process
• We also address pest management environmental
  risks with other practices

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Current Focus

• Since pesticide impacts on water quality are a
  current concern, our emphasis is on
• Management factors that reduce the potential for
  pesticide movement below the rootzone and beyond
  the edge of the field (including management of
  crop, residue/tillage, water and pesticide(s)
• Conservation Buffers that reduce pesticide
  movement beyond the edge of the field

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Integrated Pest Management

• IPM Definition
• IPM Theory
• Basic Principles of IPM
• IPM Methods
• cultural biological controls
• pest resistant varieties
• scouting and economic thresholds
• control methods based on site sensitivity

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USDA National IPM Initiative

• Voluntary goal of implementing IPM on 75 of U.S.
  cropland by the year 2002
• Involves farmers and other pest control advisors
  in the development of IPM programs to increase
  subsequent adoption
• IPM benefits everyone it can reduce
  environmental risk, improve food safety and
  increase farmer profitability

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Environmental Risks of Pest Management

• Chemical control
• Risk of pesticides leaving the Agricultural
  Management Zone (AMZ) in soil, water and air, and
  negatively impacting non-target plants, animals
  and humansAMZ is the top of the crop canopy to
  the bottom of the rootzone
• Risk of harming beneficial organisms
• Risk to personal safety

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Pesticides

• Formulations
• Use patterns
• Registration - FIFRA - FQPA
• Risk Assessment - Exposure x Toxicity
• Point source vs. Non-point source issues

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Pesticide Environmental Fate

• Pesticide Persistence and Mobility in Soil
• Soil properties
• Hydraulic loading on the soil
• Crop management practices
• Pesticide properties
• Pesticide management factors
• application methods
• timing

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Sensitivity of Ground and Surface Water

• Sensitivity refers to intrinsic physical and
  biological characteristics of a particular site
  that make it more or less susceptible to ground
  or surface water contamination
• Sensitivity parameters include
• climate
• soil characteristics
• distance to water bodies

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Vulnerability of Ground and Surface Water

• Vulnerability refers to extrinsic management
  factors that could make a sensitive site more or
  less susceptible to ground or surface water
  contamination
• Vulnerability parameters include
• pest management practices (including pesticide
  use practices)
• cropping, tillage and irrigation practices

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Pesticide Environmental Risk Analysis

• Field scale tools are available to help address
  identified water resource concerns in targeted
  areas
• The Windows Pesticide Screening Tool (WIN-PST)
  evaluates the potential for off-site pesticide
  movement in water, and its relative potential to
  chronically impact humans and sensitive fish
  species

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WIN-PST

• Evaluates three pesticide loss pathways
• Leaching below the rootzone
• Solution runoff beyond the edge of the field
• Adsorbed runoff beyond the edge of the field
• Includes considerations for
• Climate and Irrigation
• Field-specific organic matter and topsoil depth
• Soil macropores and cracks
• Apparent high water table

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WIN-PST

• Includes considerations for
• Crop residue management
• Pesticide application
• Method (foliar, banded, soil incorporated)
• Rate (low rate, ultra low rate)
• Results can help to guide the site-specific
  choice of appropriate mitigation strategies for
  all recommended pesticide uses

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Conservation Buffers Mitigate Pesticide Losses

• Pesticides vary in how tightly they are adsorbed
  to soil organic matter and the clay fraction of
  soil
• Pesticides that are strongly adsorbed move
  primarily with suspended sediment in runoff
• Conservation buffers that are effective in
  trapping sediment will also be effective in
  trapping these pesticides

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Conservation Buffers Mitigate Pesticide Losses

• Pesticides that are not strongly adsorbed tend to
  move more with water than sediment
• To be effective in reducing this type of
  pesticide loss, buffers need to increase water
  infiltration or maximize contact of runoff with
  vegetation that may adsorb pesticide

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In Summary, We Want To

• Integrate environmental risk into the pest
  management decision-making process
• Apply appropriate mitigation strategies on a
  site-specific basis
• Consider pest management interrelationships with
  climate, and soil, water, nutrient and crop
  management, in order to minimize negative impacts
  to non-target plants, animals and humans