February 15-18, 2009 Washington State Convention Center Seattle ...

3 0
AQUATIC PLANT AND ALGAE CONTROL TRAINING FOR COMMERCIAL AND PRIVATE
PESTICIDE APPLICATORS IN KENTUCKY
Forrest Wynne
Kentucky State University Cooperative Extension Program
Graves County Extension Office
251 Housman Street
Mayfield, KY 42066 USA
fwynne@email.uky.edu
Aquatic plant and algae control training sessions were offered to commercial and private pesticide applicators during the winter
and spring of 2007-2008. Commercial and private applicators that use restricted pesticides must be certified by the Kentucky
Department of Agricultures’ (KDA) Division of Environmental Services. A three year certification is granted upon passing
written exams for private and commercial applicators. Before these trainings were offered, there were no KDA approved programs
in Kentucky that would allow Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) towards re-certification for commercial applicators
of aquatic pesticides. Neighboring states offered little reciprocity between the few agency programs available. Commercial
applicators traveled out of the region to attend training programs and get the CEU’s they needed for recertification or would
re-take the certification test before their license expired.
Training sessions were conducted at three locations during the winter and spring of 2007-2008. Various agency personnel, retail
herbicide distributors and commercial and private applicators attended the sessions. The sessions were advertised on the KDA
Division of Environmental Services website listing continuing education training programs and on the University of Kentucky
College of Agriculture website listing in-service training programs for cooperative extension employees. Three Kentucky State
University State Extension Specialists for aquaculture conducted the half day sessions at university facilities. The programs
emphasized proper plant identification, water quality management and algae control, pond construction and the management of
recreational ponds, and the biological, mechanical, physical and chemical methods of controlling aquatic vegetation. The use
of available resource materials were emphasized including aquatic plant identification and herbicide information websites, fact
sheets, printed material, identification guides, and the appropriate state agency personnel to contact for further assistance.