Page 31 - 2019 Ag Mag

KMAland 2019 Integrated Pest Management 31

Pest Management and Working with NRCS

Laura Crowell, State Public Affairs Based on the results of these tion and mitigation of environmen-
Specialist, Iowa NRCS evaluations and proximity to sen- tal risks associated with planned
W sitive areas, appropriate mitiga- pesticide and cultural controls.

When working with landown-
Q) What does mitigation have to
tion strategies are included in the
ers and farmers, the Natural Re- conservation plan. do with pest management?
sources Conservation Service Following are some common- A) Mitigation simply means to
(NRCS) staff evaluate the effect ly asked questions about pest “make less severe”. Mitigation as it
land use activities have on natural management and working with relates to NRCS Pest Management
resources. NRCS. is defined as: “The process of min-
“This process may involve eval- Q) How is an Integrated Pest imizing the potential for harmful
uating pest management-related Management Plan from the NRCS impacts of pest management activ-
resource concerns and how pest different than an Integrated Pest ities on soil, water, air, plant, and
management activities may im- Management (IPM) plan from a animal resources through the ap-
pact the soil, water, air, plants, crop consultant\Agronomist? plication of conservation practices
animals, and humans,” said Kevin A) An NRCS Pest Management and/or management techniques.”
McCall, state resource conserva- Plan focuses on the environmen- When we “mitigate” hazardous
tionist for Iowa NRCS. tal impact of chemical or cultural off-site movement of pesticides or
Based on the evaluation of pest controls where-as and IPM sediment, we are decreasing the
natural resource concerns and plan focuses on choosing the spe- potential for those losses to cause
the landowner/farmer’s objec- cific chemical or cultural control to damage to at-risk resources.
tives, NRCS conservation plan- implement. By design an NRCS Q) How much mitigation is
ners will develop a conservation pest management plan utilizes enough?
plan. This plan will document the information contained in the A) The goal of the NRCS In-
landowner/farmer decisions on IPM plan rather than replacing tegrated Pest Management is to
practices to be used to reduce it. Therefore, it is imperative for prevent and/or mitigate pest man-
the environmental impact of land the conservation planner to work agement risks to natural resources
use activities. An Integrated Pest closely with the producer and the through the conservation planning
Management plan can be a com- crop adviser\agronomist to come process. A point system is used to
ponent of the conservation plan up with a sound plan both environ- determine how much mitigation is
if it meets the landowner/farmer’s mentally and economically. enough. Conservation practices
objectives for managing the en- Q) I’m already a Certified Crop and management activities are
vironmental impact of pesticides Advisor (CCA). Does that mean assigned a point value based on
(herbicides, insecticides, fungi- I’m automatically able to develop the level of effect on mitigating a
cides, nematicides, etc.) NRCS Pest Management plans? specific risk. Within the NRCS
Evaluation tools include Re- A) No. CCA certification is in- Integrated Pest Management Con-
vised Universal Soil Loss Equa- dependent of NRCS planner certi- servation Practice standard (595),
tion, Version 2 (RUSLE2), fication. CCA certification focuses point levels are established for
Wind Erosion Prediction System on identification, economic thresh- meeting the mitigation require-
(WEPS), and; if chemical pesti- olds, and specific control recom- ment. Mitigating practices and ac-
cides are used; Windows Pesti- mendations to manage pests. tivities with their associated points
cide Screening Tool (WIN-PST). NRCS planners focus on evalua- are specified in National Agron-