Plant Health Care and Pest Management Program

The University of Illinois IPM program in cooperation with the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) have created a comprehensive program in Plant Health Care (PHC) for landscape professionals. This three-year project culminated in 1996 with three regional two-day hands-on training workshops in St. Louis, Mo., Chicago, Ill., and Cleveland, Ohio.

Each workshop introduced the concepts and practice of PHC and IPM. The workshops broke with tradition by forming small field and lab classes led by multi-disciplinary teams of instructors from 12 educational institutions, associations, and private firms in the Midwest. Each class required practitioners to map private and commercial properties, use diagnostics to determine plant problems, and meet with clientele to determine courses of action. The interaction with clientele (commercial, municipal, or private) is integral to a PHC program.

The Midwest workshops served as pilot programs for what the ISA plans to develop as an international advanced certification program in PHC and IPM. The certification program will include business aspects of PHC in addition to training in diagnosis and management. More than 7,000 ISA certified arborists are eager for advanced certification in PHC and IPM.

As a resource for PHC practitioners to refer to during and after training, the Illinois IPM program, with ISA support, developed a PHC Internet resource and a comprehensive manual on PHC. The Internet resource entitled Arboriculture On-Line is the world's leading Internet resource on tree care, with more than 15,000 access a month from more than 50 countries. The 300-page full color manual Plant Health Care for Woody Ornamentals, developed by 17 authors, will be used in PHC programs and as a text for undergraduate level courses in landscape management.