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The Southern Regional IPM (S-RIPM) Competitive Grants Program funds projects that help to solve pest problems while reducing risks to human health and the environment. In 2011, the program has awarded approximately $800,000 to support six projects:
The American chestnut tree was among the tall stalwarts of the Appalachian forest for centuries. Its rot-resistant wood was used in barns, railroad ties and telephone poles; its nuts fed people, farm animals and wildlife; its canopy offered shade and mopped up a growing country’s pollution.
An environmentally friendly weed-eradication strategy that has been gaining popularity across the nation made its way to Western Carolina University recently in the form of 70 kudzu-chomping goats.
2,4-D is coming back. What many might consider a “dinosaur” may be the best solution for growers fighting weed resistance today, says Dean Riechers, University of Illinois associate professor of weed physiology. “Farmers can’t imagine going back to 2,4-D or other auxin herbicides,” Riechers says. “But herbicide resistance is bad enough that companies are willing to bring it back. That illustrates how severe this problem is.”
The cayenne tick has been identified as one of the vectors of equine piroplasmosis in horses in a 2009 Texas outbreak, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists.
Read the rest of the story at USDA Agricultural Research Service.
Western NC Public Radio aired the first of two segments on the history of the hemlock woolly adelgid today, October 3. The second segment airs tomorrow. You can also listen to the segments online.
