Integrated Pesticide Management. Chemical Trespass/Herbicide, 1995

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614 of program ownership and pride in what the divi- ent control strategies has brought us further that we sion had been able to accomplish. This has proven originally imagined. Regular comprehensive pre - invaluable. and postemergence herbicide applications in park Periodic internal training continues to be a fea- plantings have been replaced by a multi- faceted ture of our program. In addition, we require all staff cultural effort, careful monitoring of results and involved in vegetation or pest control to obtain a conditions, and judicious chemical programs where state Public Pesticide Applicator's License, which other measures are not effective. Adequate control obligates them to a cycle of state - certified refresher/ in general - purpose and athletic turf areas has been update training or retesting. We've also established achieved through cultural and mechanical mea- an electronic bulletin board for information sharing sures. Even in aesthetic turf, where weed toler- throughout the year. ances are lowest, cultural measures are the founda- tion of the program, and have been supplemented, FIELD STAFF DRIVES THE PROGRAM in most cases, by only localized spot treatments with herbicide. Phenoxy herbicides have been Our efforts to enlist and involve the staff in the phased out of our program in favor of other mate - design as well as the implementation of our IPM rials that provide better control of target species program has been critical to our success. Many of within program guidelines. Field staff's contribu- our most useful alternative (nonchemical) vegeta- tion to these successes has been invaluable. tion and pest control techniques were developed or proposed by field staff, based on their observation "REALISM" HAS PAID OFF and experience. Some have gone even further. For example, our An anonymous saying I read a few years after head gardener at the Hendricks Park Rhododen- Eugene's IPM effort began has proved to be illus- dron Garden arranged a research effort in coopera- trative of the reason for our success: tion with the Oregon State University Department of Entomology and the Biosys Corporation of Palo The idealist says the short run doesn't Alto, CA. Their 2 years of experiments helped to count. The cynic says the long run doesn't establish the efficacy of garden sanitation and para- matter. The realist knows that what is sitic nematodes for the control of root weevils. done or left undone in the short run, de- Both of these techniques have now been incorpo- termines the long run. rated into our IPM for this pest. The Owen Municipal Rose Garden is another In the continuing controversy and debate over positive example of what motivated field staffers are the use of pesticides in the public domain, it is easy able to accomplish. A rose display garden contain- to locate both cynics and idealists in profusion. Our ing 4000 plants, Owen is very popular with the program has been a success and has become an public and receives high visitation annually. Disease example because we were not driven either by a management is, of course, a considerable challenge. rigid refusal to examine and modify historic meth- Working over several years and under a succession ods, nor a blind adherence to impractical philo- of supervisors, the head gardener and his assistant sophical or political biases. We chose to try IPM developed a strong cultural program and undertook because it offered a method whereby we could be some clever site modifications that enabled them to environmentally, operationally, and fiscally respon- gain increasing control over conditions favoring dis- Bible concurrently — a method superior to those ease. They also gave experienced thought to the we had been using prior to that time, and to any reasonable and appropriate treatment thresholds for alternative that has come to our attention in the the diseases, varieties, and site. A modern irrigation more than 10 years since our program began. system, installed in 1986, gave them the final tool Others can share our success by following a they had lacked — much improved control of soil similar course. Be willing to educate yourself and and foliage moisture levels. This spring, we began your staff in this methodology and trust in the our fourth season without a significant fungicide ability of experienced field personnel to effectively treatment in the garden. It remains popular with the learn and apply it to whatever vegetation and pest public and is frequently featured as a "background" control challenges your agency might face. You for weather reports and public service announce- need not apologize to those who will not examine ments on all of the local television stations. The their present methods, or to those who demand Owen Garden also was featured on the national much, but produce only controversy and ill will. television show, "Gardening in America." While idealists and cynics struggle fruitlessly on, In the areas of shrub bed and turfgrass mainte- the realists will discover and develop viable pest nance, too, staff input and willingness to try differ- control strategies for the 1990s and beyond.