May 1, 2002
Larry Wilhoit, Contract Manager
Department of Pesticide Regulation
P.O. Box 4015
Sacramento, CA 95812-4015
Re: Contract #00-02105
Dear Larry:
In accordance with the terms outlined in the grant awarded
in June 2001 to the Almond Pest Management Alliance (PMA), I am enclosing a
progress report on the Alliance’s activities for the period of Nov. 1, 2002
through April 30, 2002.
Under separate cover, I have submitted an invoice to DPR
for reimbursable expenses incurred by the Almond PMA for the time period of Feb.
1, 2002 – April 30, 2002.
The dormant spray meetings held in November, December and
January were very successful. The Kern County field day held on Nov. 20
attracted approximately 80 people, the Stanislaus field day held Nov. 28, 2001
attracted approximately 110 people, the Hamilton City field day held on Dec. 5,
2001 was attended by approximately 65 people and the Chico field day on Jan. 11,
2002 was attended by approximately 90 people. All of these sessions featured presentations on the progress
of the PMA project to date, with the farm advisors updating the growers and
PCA’s on how the demonstration projects are structured, what the target pests
are, and what results have been documented to date.
On March 12, the PMA Advisory Team meeting was held at the
Sacramento office of DPR, in conjunction with the DPR’s PMA Update Workshop.
Chris Heintz of the Almond Board of California gave a presentation of the
results of the PMA project to date. Her PowerPoint presentation has been posted
to the almond PMA website. Stanislaus County cooperator Merlyn Garber was on
hand to discuss his perspective on the project and fielded questions from the
audience. Merlyn stressed the economic analysis component of the project
heavily.
The Advisory Team reviewed the project’s progress to
date. Field days were scheduled for May 1 in Kern County, May 2 in Stanislaus
County and May 29 in Butte County. All of the days will again features updates
on the project to date, along with sessions on ant and mite control, with the
advisors free to add in whatever modules may be of interest to local growers and
PCA’s.
The Advisory Team also discussed reviewing PUR data for
Kern County, as well as publication of almond PMA monitoring proposals. Both
items will be followed up on at the next Advisory Team meeting to be held in the
fall at a date to be determined.
The spring 2002 PMA newsletter was published. The
newsletter was distributed to approximately 6,500 growers, PCA’s and
interested individuals. The newsletter is also posted to the PMA website. The
articles discussed the awarding of a fifth year of funding for the project and
what the project goals are, as well as updates on the Butte and Stanislaus
projects.
The next quarterly progress report should be issued around
Aug. 1, 2002 as the crop year comes to an end for the Almond Board of
California. The fifth year of the almond PMA project will begin Aug. 1, 2002.
I hope this information is useful to you. If you have any
questions or comments, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Mark Looker, Project Administrator
Almond Pest Management Alliance
Cc: Almond PMA Partners