The Mission of the Oregon IPM Center
The Oregon IPM Center is a catalyst for discovery and new thinking relating to sustainable agriculture and integrated pest management (IPM). We develop research and education partnerships in subjects including agroecology, adaptations to climate change, pesticide resistance management, invasive species, and outcome-based, participatory education. We promote informed dialogue among scientists, farming groups, regulatory agencies and policy makers to enhance our capacity to meet pressing problems in food security.
Oregon State Agency IPM Committee
The Statewide IPM Coordinator, housed at Oregon IPM Center, organizes and connects the IPM activities of state agencies and universities as part of the Legislature's goals of implementing a sustainable approach to pest management.
Learn more about the Oregon State Agency IPM Committee:
What is IPM?
Integrated Pest Management is a science-based approach that combines a variety of techniques to manage pests while minimizing the impacts of pesticides. By understanding how insects, weeds, plant pathogens, and vertebrates live, and the factors that affect their abundance and behavior, IPM practitioners can manage pests with the most current and diversified methods. The intelligent selection and use of different pest control tactics is done intentionally to improve management, lower costs, and reduce risks to people and the environment.
Our History
The Oregon IPM Center, formerly the Integrated Plant Protection Center or IPPC, was formed in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University in 1967, and has been conducting research and outreach in state, national and international settings ever since. Since 2020, the Oregon IPM Center has lead and coordinated a number of multi-investigator, multi-state research and outreach programs based on IPM.
The Center provides a home for the State IPM Coordinator, who works with the USDA-NIFA, the federal partner of the Land Grant Universities in the USA, to implement integrated pest management (IPM) practices wherever these are needed. This program is guided by the National Roadmap for IPM, which has established goals for delivering economically sustainable pest management with reduced risks to human health and to the environment in the USA. To aide IPM, the USDA has established four regional IPM Centers. The Oregon IPM Center works closely with the Western IPM Center based at University of California, Davis.
The Oregon IPM Center is funded by the USDA-NIFA Crop Protection and Pest Management Program Extension Implementation Program Area, OSU College of Agricultural Sciences, and several state and federal grant funded awards.
To read more about our history, please read this article from the Spring 2020 Oregon IPM Insider.
Our Impact
From projects that bring improved ecological function and human health by identifying pesticide risks to online tools and analyses that give agricultural professionals and policymakers data to make informed decisions, the Oregon IPM Center is making an impact at every level. Below are just a few ways that the Oregon IPM Center is advancing its mission. A complete list is found in our projects index.
Socio-Political
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Pacific Northwest Pest Management Strategic Plans were created that recommend policy, research and educational priorities to the Pacific Northwest university community, USDA & USEPA.
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Pesticide usage information and feedback on various products is regularly communicated to USDA/EPA through the public comment process, keeping stakeholders aware of regulatory actions and encouraging stakeholder involvement in the regulatory process.
Ecological Function
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Since trap mapping was introduced online in Walla Walla, first-generation codling moth populations have fallen, and overall insecticide use has decreased by more than 80% with a transition to lower-risk products.
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A regional conservation biological control workgroup developed a needs assessment for Oregon, Washington, California, and Idaho that is being used to guide targeted education programs throughout these different eco-regions, and also providing justification for a portfolio of grants.
Decision Support
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Modeling tools such as the Online Phenology and Degree-Day tools at USPest.org was developed to aid growers and pesticide applicators to accurately time pesticide applications to more effectively target vulnerable life stages of pests and diseases.
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An online, searchable database, developed from the IPM Strategic Plans, aides researchers and policymakers in identifying areas of focus to support the urgent needs of growers in the Pacific Northwest.
Human Health and Well-Being
- A pilot pesticide risk communication program in West Africa resulted in reduced human health risks for all the farming families that participated. This is now being scaled up to several hundred farmers.
- The Food Alliance and SAN standards have reached over 1 million farmers in 50 countries, and they will benefit from reductions in the use of hazardous pesticides, while being recognized in the marketplace for use of IPM practices that are less reliant upon inputs.