Final report for WPDP23-006
Project Information
The Palisade Insectary would like to create a video series to help promote biological control usage in integrated pest management across Colorado. This video series would focus on each of the currently available biological controls provided through the Insectary's Request-A-Bug program, give an overview of the organism, the pest controlled, identification in the field, how to integrate the biological control into a management plan, as well as methods for collection and release of the biological controls.
Objectives of this project are to increase outreach, provide education and improve implementation of biological controls. Specifically, the Palisade Insectary would like to produce videos of 10-15 minutes for each of the following topics:
- An Introduction, What is Biological Control?
- Leafy Spurge Biological Control
- Diffuse and Spotted Knapweed Biological Control
- Musk Thistle Biological Control
- Yellow Toadflax Biological Control
- Dalmatian Toadflax Biological Control
- Russian Knapweed Biological Control
- Canada Thistle Biological Control
- Puncturevine Biological Control
- Field Bindweed Biological Control
Videos 2-10 cover the history, lifecycle, field identification, collection, release, and implementation of each biological control into an integrated pest management program. These videos are meant to give agency to agricultural producers and land managers who would like to implement biological controls on their land by collecting, sorting, releasing and monitoring independently. These videos will be publicly available and promoted by the Colorado Dept. of Agriculture through our website, website links included in brochures and social media promotion.
We have created the following Gantt chart to outline this project and the timeline for each objective.
Cooperators
Education
Our educational approach for this project is to summarize the current best research for each biological control in Colorado and give land managers the information necessary to create their own biological control applications that fits their management practices. We aim to provide succinct timelines for IWM practices that can be combined with biological control so timing of interventions is easy to identify. We also want to provide identification, collection and release methods for each biological control so that any land manager can go into a field and identify biological controls already present, collect them efficiently and re-distribute them where needed. We aim to visually train land managers in the identification of biological control agent effects on different weed species and decide their own thresholds for intervention.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
The objective of this education and outreach initiative is to recruit participants and collaborators for the educational videos set to film beginning in April 2024.
Torri Gladem will present integrated weed management strategies to the group that utilize established biological control agents. We will be soliciting participants from the Arkansas River Basin in Colorado with a particular focus on Russian Knapweed, Puncturevine, and Musk Thistle. We are looking for video filming locations and farms or ranches where biological controls are or can be established for demonstration both in person and through videos or photographs.
Outcomes expected are to find multiple collaborators spanning from NRCS, CSU Extension and county or municipal weed managers in the Arkansas River Basin of Colorado who will be able to offer training to end users regarding utilizing biological controls within Colorado.
The objective of this educational initiative is to solicit feedback from officials for the presentation of biological control education.
We will present biological control identification, collection, sorting and rearing methods to Routt County officials and land managers. We will aim to solicit feedback from these officials for the training tools and materials we can create for their use to train field staff. This information will go directly into the production of our educational videos.
Outcomes expected are specific educational tools or demonstrations required for county officials to train field staff on the usage of biological controls. This could include specific photos, videos, field guides or other requested information.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
Within less than 24 hours of posting videos, the CDA had received over 100 viewings. We expect this number to increase greatly as we cross promote with both WSARE and iBiocontrol. These videos can be shared by anyone to help western agricultural and land managers recognize, identify, collect, sort, release and monitor the most common and successful biological control agents.