May 31, 2000
Bob Elliott, Contract Manager
Department of Pesticide Regulation
830 K Street Mall
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Contract #98-0326
Dear Bob:
In accordance with the terms outlined in the grant awarded June 4, 1999 to the Almond Pest Management Alliance (PMA), I am enclosing the third quarterly status report on the Alliance’s activities for the period of February 1, 1999 through April 30, 2000. I apologize for the late submission of this report.
Under separate cover, I have submitted an invoice in the amount of $19,620 for reimbursable expenses incurred by the Almond PMA during the second quarter.
Additionally, I have enclosed a separate document showing the projected budget by category, cash flow and the budget balance as of May 1, 2000.
The Almond PMA Advisory Team met March 14 at UC Davis. That meeting discussed the updated Pest Management Evaluation which was submitted to DPR March 9, 2000 as a prelude to applying for a third year of funding. This updated PME was developed by Nicole Darby, field scout for the Butte county PMA project. It is a very useful document for both the almond industry and DPR as it targets pests and diseases which impact the industry, and the various approaches used to control these key pests and diseases.
The March 14 Advisory Team meeting also spent considerable time discussing the year Three Work plan which was submitted April 14, 2000. I will not recount all of that discussion for purposes of this report but minutes of the meeting will be available at the next Advisory Team meeting June 14 at the Almond Board office in Modesto.
Plans were made during this time period for the Alliance’s Spring Field Days. Those were scheduled as follows:
I have provided via email accounts of those field days to all of the partners. Since they technically fell outside of this reporting period, a full accounting will be provided in the next quarterly report due to be issued Aug. 1, 2000.
The third quarter saw publication of a newsletter which updated almond growers on the progress of the PMA project to date. This newsletter, a copy of which is enclosed, provided status reports on each of the three projects from the local UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors, as well as publicized the planned Spring field days. This newsletter was also posted to the PMA website for additional distribution.
Third quarter field reports have been filed by the Stanislaus and Butte project field scouts. I have enclosed copies of those reports. The Kern field scout report is expected to be filed in a few weeks.
The almond PMA project received favorable coverage in an article that appeared in the April 2000 edition of "Pacific Nut Producer." I have enclosed a copy of that article.
The almond PMA, through co-sponsorship by the Almond Board of California, participated in the March 28 PMA workshop held by DPR in Sacramento. Myself and Chris Heintz of the Almond Board were among the presenters. The workshop was an excellent opportunity for us to highlight the successful work of the almond PMA and to discuss common concerns and issues with other PMA groups from throughout the state. I have enclosed a copy of a news article of the workshop which appeared on the AlmondEx.com web site.
I hope this information is helpful to you. As you know, this status report, as well as status reports from each site’s field scout, are posted to the PMA website, which is now linked from the Almond Board’s industry web site www.almondboard.com
Our next PMA Advisory Team meeting is planned for June 14 in Modesto at the Almond Board of California. We will focus our attention on refining our year Three work plan, with special emphasis on planning the upcoming dormant spray field days. We will also discuss articles for our fall newsletter, with particular emphasis on dormant OP research findings by Dr. Lynn Epstein. Her findings were presented at the May 8 DPR workshop on Pesticide Use Report data and is worthy of further distribution to almond growers.
Please let me know if I can provide you with any further information.
Sincerely,
Mark Looker, Project Administrator
Almond Pest Management Alliance
Cc: Almond PMA partners
Rodger Wasson
Tom Krugman
Enclosures