Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Additional Plants: native plants, ornamentals, other

• Community and Urban Pest Management: institution/shelters/municipal buildings/public places, public health, school & child care

• Human Health: other, workers, residents, applicators

• Pollinators: habitat, other

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: behavioral control, biological control, biorational pesticides, botanical pesticides, compost extracts, cultural control, decision support system, disease vectors, exclusion, habitat modification, mating disruption, mechanical control, monitoring/scouting, prevention, sanitation, weed ecology

• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, indicators, other

• Production Systems: aquaponics, hydroponics, organic agriculture, transitioning to organic

• Soil Management: composting, earthworms, organic matter, soil microbiology, soil quality/health

• Sustainable Communities: public participation, public policy, quality of life, sustainability measures, urban agriculture

The North Central School Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Working Group (WG), led by the IPM Institute of North America, proposes to improve environmental safety, health standards and educational outcomes in the region’s schools. 

In 2023-2024, the WG will focus on disseminating The Pest Defense for Healthy Schools trainings (Pest Defense) and resources to both K-12 school staff and students. The Pest Defense program includes 10 no-cost, scientifically-vetted IPM educational content modules tailored to specific school employee groups including: custodians, maintenance, facility managers, landscape professionals, food service professionals, nurses, teachers and administrators.

Expanding Pest Defense trainings and resources in 2023-2024 will greatly help the NCIPM achieve its stakeholder priority of increasing knowledge and implementation of IPM practices in K-12 youth. This proposal’s three objectives address potential barriers to the adoption of Pest Defense principles and concepts by (1) increasing Pest Defense’s and school IPM’s brand awareness, (2) identifying and analyzing state policies that either promote or hinder school IPM and (3) developing pathways to incorporate IPM into school curriculums and, ultimately, everyday management practices.   

To increase school IPM brand awareness, the WG’s first objective will establish Pest Defense as a central hub of information and the de facto school IPM program. The WG will host bimonthly working group calls, publish monthly Pest Defense newsletters and update Pest Defense training modules to share national school IPM success stories, up-to-date best school IPM practices and school IPM funding opportunities. These activities will increase WG and Pest Defense webinar, newsletter and training module participation and lead to more IPM adoption within North Central region schools.

WG efforts to identify and analyze state school IPM or pesticide policies will significantly improve knowledge of the motivations, structures and stakeholders behind effective state school IPM policies. WG Co-PIs will catalog all North Central region state laws, policies and/or ordinances related to school IPM, pesticides or pest control. Following, the Co-PIs will interview stakeholders involved in the writing, passing or enforcing of these policies and develop a “North Central School IPM Policy” factsheet.  The WG believes that this factsheet and research can motivate more North Central region state policymakers to prioritize school IPM by providing an overview of school IPM policy possibilities, potential barriers and case studies of successful school IPM policies.

Ultimately, WG efforts will incorporate IPM into school curriculums through administering interactive programs for K-12 students.  IPM experts Dr. Thomas Green and Ryan Anderson will visit three North Central region schools in 2023 to instruct interactive Pest Defense trainings for K-12 students and staff.  The students will develop competency to inspect their school buildings and grounds for pests or pest-conducive conditions and develop recommendations for how to manage these pests with least-toxic control strategies. Dr. Green and Anderson will incorporate these recommendations into their own IPM assessments of the school buildings and grounds, provide the schools with a final IPM implementation and improvement report and recognize student and staff IPM expertise via Green Shield Certified (see greenshieldcertified.org).  

Objective 1: Establish the North Central School IPM Working Group and its The Pest Defense for Healthy Schools as a central hub of information and the de facto school IPM program.

Objective 2: Improve knowledge of the motivations, structures and stakeholders behind effective state school IPM policies.

Objective 3: Incorporate Pest Defense and IPM into school curriculums through administering interactive programs for K-12 students.