Ventura
County is the most impacted with high levels of GWSS present
in over 30,000 acres of citrus and some 23 nurseries that have
potential to ship out of the area. The biggest problem is GWSS
intrusion from surrounding areas. Two specific projects are
aimed at reducing the pest pressure so that nurseries own pest
management programs have some hope of working.
Barrier
Demonstration Project
The planning
is nearly complete for the funding and installation of 15 feet
high saran barriers between the nursery and the surrounding
citrus grove. The aim is to block the flight path of the GWSS
as they move to feed. The project will also test the interaction
with trap crops and measure the effectiveness of the barriers
over a two-year period.
Area
Wide Management Plan
Funding
looks very good from USDA at this point. $1.5 million has been
requested to support this cooperative program to manage the
GWSS levels. Based on the program currently in place in Kern
County, it will involve the treatment of citrus groves that
are near the shipping nurseries. Data collected in the Kern
County project shows much lower numbers of GWSS in the treated
area. Again, the point is to reduce the GWSS population to levels
that will allow nurseries to use their own internal pest management
programs to meet shipping regulations.
Research
into treatments is starting a new phase under the direction
of Jerry Campbell who now works in the GWSS program. His main
goal for the research is to identify all the issues that will
need to be met before a treatment is acceptable to the stakeholders.
This includes the efficacy and testing criteria as well as the
nurseries input about the cost and preferred use of the products
that might be selected. Also, the call for research proposals
will go out nation wide hoping to get some new ideas and more
people working on the testing. Although no "silver bullet"
is anticipated, we should be supportive of the research efforts
to identify some possible solutions.
The GWSS
Board was created to direct the spending of the funds collected
by the grape growers assessment that went into place last year.
They have collected $6.1 million for this year and recently
began the discussion of how to use the money. They are planning
to direct a significant portion to "Applied Research"
which aims to put knowledge already collected into practice
in ways that will help the shipping nurseries with meeting regulations.
This is very exciting news and reflects the Wine and Grape Industry's
concern that the nursery industry has been the 'least affected
and the most impacted' by the fight to manage GWSS.
The nursery
sub-committee recently met and gave input to CDFA on the testing
programs and will follow up with CDFA on which products should
have priorities for testing. In other business it was agreed
that the concept of self-certification for shipping nurseries
had little support and limited benefit and will not be further
pursued at this point by our committee.
TA review
of the EIR draft was provided that indicated that the impact
to the nursery industry is not significant. Also, the impact
of additional chemical use to control GWSS was not considered
to be of significant impact to workers or the environment. The
comment period lasts through the month of April. Your comments
can be presented in person or writing. That information is available
on the CDFA website.
The next
meeting of the sub committee will be June 5th.
