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Ongoing InitiativesThe Dialogue accomplishes its Vision and Goals through a Steering Committee and the following nine Dialogue Initiatives. If you are interested in becoming involved with one or more of the Dialogue initiatives use the link below to sign-up.
Dialogue Initiative DescriptionsInitiative 01 - Prevent Introduction Initiative – Faith CampbellThe Dialogue's Goal I: Improve federal, state, and provincial
programs so as to prevent new Non-Native Forest Insects and
Diseases from arriving on the continent by the year 2015. The
Prevention Initiative Team will focus on two pathways of
introduction: imports of living plants that can carry damaging
insects and diseases; and imports of wood packaging. Regarding
imports of living plants, the Team will encourage USDA APHIS to
move promptly to establish and utilize the NAPPRA category
proposed in the 2009 rulemaking and work with APHIS, the nursery trade, and other
stakeholders to advance the pending rulemaking that will
outline basic principles of pest-prevention (critical control
point?) programs that will be required of foreign suppliers of
plants. Presumably, these principles will be based on NAPPO RSPM#24. Initiative 02 - Engage with APHIS and State Agencies on Firewood Movement Certification and Regulations Initiative – Michael BuckAnn Gibbs and Michael Buck serve on the National Firewood Task Force, a group sponsored by USDA APHIS to deal with the issue of firewood movement at the national level. The effort was initiated based on pressure from both state agriculture and forestry officials, because many states were developing state actions when this seemed to be a national issue. Participants on the task force included representatives from APHIS, NPB, NASF, USFS and NPS. The group developed a set of recommendations focusing on three action areas: outreach, voluntary, and regulatory, emphasizing that these actions must be brought forward simultaneously. The Don’t Move Firewood web site was cited as an important aspect of outreach. Best management practices and developing an industry run certification program were the focus of the voluntary actions and the regulatory aspect of recommendations included development of federal regulations with complimentary state regulations as needed. The recommendations will be presented to various groups this year for feedback and support to move forward. Dialogue participants who engage on this Initiative will look for opportunities to learn more about the recommendations and as appropriate, shape responses that would be shared with the full Dialogue for additional sign on. Initiative 03 - Address Phytophthora ramorum (Sudden Oak Death Pathogen) Initiative – Susan Frankel, Jerry Lee and Ken RauscherSuggested goals: Our P. ramorum initiative will work with private industry and public sector partners to encourage a collaborative, integrated effort to prevent the spread of P. ramorum to uninfested areas, and particularly to prevent its establishment in the wild in areas remote from current wildland/suburban/urban infestations. Toward this end, the initiative will 1) support and encourage APHIS and USFS actions to develop and implement a strategic plan at the national level to prevent P. ramorum movement into new wild areas (this may well begin as an expanded version of the planned APHIS-USFS framework); 2) support and encourage private sector, academic, and APHIS efforts to develop and implement effective and cost-effective systems approaches to prevent P. ramorum spread via nursery production; and 3) implement communications efforts to improve public and professional understanding of P. ramorum and to encourage actions to minimize the likelihood of pathogen spread via multiple pathways. Initiative 04 - Address Non-federal Quarantine Pests (NFQP) Initiative – Faith CampbellDialogue participants are becoming increasingly aware of pests or diseases that threaten "naïve" hosts (tree species which did not co-evolve with the insect or pathogen) that do not meet the definition of a "quarantine pest". In some cases, these damaging organisms have been introduced from abroad but USDA regulatory officials have declined to adopt programs targeting them because they have already become widespread, spread easily by natural means, or cause little damage in the region to which they were first introduced. Examples of such species include hemlock woolly adelgid, laurel wilt, Sirex woodwasp, and `ohi`a or Puccinia rust. In other cases, the pest or disease is native to one area of the United States, but appears to threaten severe damage to trees in another geographic area. Examples include gold-spotted oak borer and Thousand canker disease. The NFQP Team will work with USDA, states, relevant industries, and other stakeholders to explore ways to respond to the threat posed by such pests and diseases. Possible responses might include state regulations (possibly supported by USDA recognition of such programs as "official control" or "special needs"); industry best management practices; or greater flexibility in applying criteria governing federal regulatory programs. Initiative 05 - Explore Citizen-Based Pest Surveys Initiative – Jodie EllisOur initiative to explore citizen-based pest
surveys will further the Dialogue’s goals by
simultaneously: 1) raising the public’s
awareness of invasive forest pests, 2) actively
engaging volunteers in positive and constructive
activities to reinforce the idea of their
ownership, not just of the problem, but of the
forests themselves, and 3) providing real
benefits to regulatory agencies in delimiting
and possibly quarantining actionable pests of
concern, enhancing the early detection/rapid
response initiative directive that most federal
and state agencies practice. “Citizen
volunteers” refers to non-governmentally
affiliated individuals and/or their
organizations that fall in not-for-profit
categories such as student groups, civic
organizations, youth groups, Master Gardeners
and Master Naturalists, etc. This could be
accomplished through developing a national
curriculum for public school students (middle
school through high school) with guidance from
Project Learning Tree, an environmental
education initiative of the American Forest
Foundation, and through developing and providing
structured programs and training for leaders of
appropriate and interested volunteer groups. We
plan to use the
www.dontmovefirewood.org web site as a
central point for information when possible. Initiative 06 - Engage Industry on Communications and Education Initiative – Frank LowensteinOur Engage Industry on Communications and Education Initiative works to support the Dialogue’s goals and other Dialogue initiatives. It accomplishes this by: 1) engaging industry representatives as spokespeople to other stakeholders to help convey the impacts of foreign pests; 2) conveying information to industry members that enables them to improve their practices; and 3) providing information to the public regarding improvements in industry practices and actions that can encourage individual action in support of those practices. “Industry” is intended to refer to groups of for-profit companies and trade associations that face shared markets for their products and potentially affect forest pest introduction and spread (e.g., the firewood industry, the forest products industry, the nursery industry, and large box retailers). Activities ready for implementation include additional work on Plant Smart; adding invasives to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) training via the extension network; and engaging the E-Bay Green Team and follow up with other online distributors of raw wood to ensure compliance with quarantines and best practices. Other possible future activities could include putting together an effort to improve risk communication; seeking to build upon Lowe’s, Meijer, and RILA interest in the dialogue; supporting compensation-for-nursery-owners’ proposals as they move toward legislative implementation; engaging municipalities; and engaging woodland land owners. Initiative 07 - Enhance Federal Funding Initiative – Faith CampbellAchieving the Dialogue's three Goals pertaining to preventing introduction of new pests and containing or eradicating those pests and diseases that have been introduced depends to a significant extent on ensuring adequate funding for federal agencies responsible for these activities. The lead agencies are USDA APHIS and USDA Forest Service; although important contributions are made by USDA Agriculture Research Service, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and other agencies. The Funding Initiative Team will work with other stakeholders to educate Administration and Congressional officials about the importance of providing sufficient funding for the relevant programs - through a combination of Congressional appropriations, releases of emergency funds, user fees [e.g., AQI fees], and other sources. Initiative 08 - Success Stories Initiative – Ashley WalterAn important aspect of securing funding for invasive species initiatives is demonstrating that these programs have a high probability of success when given adequate resources. It is also important to remind the general public and those engaged in natural resource management that, though difficult, efforts to control or eradicate invasive species can be successful when combined with innovative approaches and sufficient involvement from stakeholders. The goal of the Success Stories Initiative is to gather examples of invasive species programs that have successfully mitigated a significant threat to North American forest resources and to turn these stories into one page flyers detailing those achievements. These flyers will be developed using a common template and will give a background to each story, highlight the factors that made each project successful, and will highlight the states affected by the problem in question. The long term goal of this group is to build a library of these success stories which can be used to educate legislators and funding sources about the importance of providing adequate resources to battle invasive species. To date, the group has finalized a general template for use in the stories and has developed documents detailing the eradication of the plum pox virus from Pennsylvania, the suppression of pink hibiscus mealybug populations in California, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana using Biocontrol agents, and the prevention of a significant range expansion of the hemlock woolly adelgid into Michigan. Dialogue members are encouraged to submit their own stories of success to the group for the creation of additional documents. Initiative 09 - Promote, Maintain, and Expand the Don’t Move Firewood (DMF) Website Initiative – Jodie Ellis/Frank LowensteinIn today’s noisy media environment, building a unified brand is particularly important to success in influencing behavior. The Don’t Move Firewood (DMF) campaign has to date reached approximately 6 million Americans with a unified brand and design, winning multiple awards and recognition. Our objective is to place the brand at the service of the phytosanitary community as a whole, greatly increasing the effectiveness of outreach on firewood movement. The Don’t Move Firewood initiative will seek funding to continue and expand the Don’t Move Firewood web-based campaign. Depending on available funding the activities to be pursued may include:
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