Happy New Year everyone!  I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday season.  Now that January is upon us it looks like winter is finally setting in.  Thank you to all who attended the Idaho Pest Expo last month at the Galaxy Event Center in Meridian and the Canyon Crest Event Center in Twin Falls.  Ben Miller put together an excellent lineup of speakers for everyone to enjoy and hopefully learn a few things in the process.  The attendance at each of the locations was excellent and we hope everyone felt it was well worth their time to attend. 

The Idaho Department of Ag has published the final document for the Administrative Rules Bulletin that will go in front of the legislature for vote in the upcoming months. The board has been involved in several meetings with our Idaho Department of Agriculture over this past year and offered our input with several rule changes that are being proposed and assisted with how that language reads. The Department of Ag has been very open to industry input throughout this entire process and we thank them for their acceptance of these proposals. These rules will directly affect all pesticide applicators, hopefully for the better.  Some of the rule changes involve pesticide credit requirements, re-organization of categories by merging/combining similar categories into one, changes to the Apprentice Program, and elimination of waiting period between tests.  In addition to the rule changes, they are also still in the process of producing training videos on the different urban categories for people to use as they’re studying to pass exams.  They were hoping to have the first few videos released already but that’s currently delayed due to several exams being compromised, which means they’re having to spend a significant amount of time rewriting those tests.  Hopefully we will see the first few videos this spring.

The IPMA Board is still monitoring the progression of the new EPA guidelines on the use of rodenticides.  The National Pest Management Association is fighting with the EPA on some of the verbiage and other issues at hand and once all that gets settled the EPA should release a final draft for us to review. More to come in the months ahead.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone for choosing to be a member of this association.  Pesticide regulation is a huge focus for us and we’re lucky to live where we live, but we will forever face the challenges that go along with such a hotly contested industry.  We are surrounded by states that are regulating our industry to the max and Idaho will continue to be pressured to follow suit.  We, as a board, will continue to fight for the “common sense” approach to regulation and try to eliminate the over-reaches from our government.  We need your help, though. This is a strength in numbers association and the more people and businesses that belong, the stronger and louder our word becomes.  Please encourage any friends and colleagues that have not yet become a member to join our group.  It is a small price to pay to support such a great industry.

Sincerely,

Pat Sherer