Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts

Tuesday and Thursday of this week the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts held its annual Speaker's Program Workshop. I participated on both days and it was a wonderful opportunity to meet folks from garden clubs across the state (and to meet all the other speakers as well!), speak to them about this project, and encourage them to sign up for our Pest Alert email list.


The presentation was set up to have multiple panels that can be swapped out depending on the interests of the audience, with two pests per panel, plus the project logo and URL and two smaller panels describing the project in general. For the garden clubs, I featured:

• Asian longhorned beetle and the Emerald ash borer
  
• Viburnum leaf beetle and Daylily rust
  
• Giant hogweed and Mile-a-minute vine

It took quite a bit of work (and help from kind coworkers) to produce those posters, but they'll be getting a lot of use this year, I am sure.

Plum Pox Virus Fact Sheet

A brand new fact sheet on Plum Pox Virus (Potyviridae sp.) has been added to our Fact Sheet page. Thanks to everyone who offered constructive criticism on the earlier drafts, and to the photographers who kindly gave permission for their photos to be used for our outreach efforts.

Plum Pox Virus (PPV) has not yet been found in Massachusetts, but has been recorded in Pennsylvania, and was discovered in New York and Michigan in 2006.

Ag Day!

Today was Agriculture Day at the State House, a chance for Massachusetts farmers and food producers to discuss issues and legislation affecting their farms and communities. The Department of Agricultural Resources coordinates the annual event. The Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Project had some flyers at the DAR booth to advertise our website, plus a sign-up sheet for our pest alert email list (bottom left in the photo above). Mostly it was an opportunity to meet several of my contacts in person, since many of them were staffing their own booths.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach blog!