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Integrated Pest Management

The best approach to managing pest problems is to combine prevention and control strategies to meet natural resource management objectives. This approach is called IPM.

Pest management should be a part of the overall management plan for a forest. The need for pest control can usually be minimized through wise, long-term forestry practices that promote healthy and vigorous trees. The control methods chosen will depend on the kind and amount of control necessary, the costs, and the benefits within legal, environmental, and other constraints.

The most important principle of pest control is to use a control method only when it will prevent the pest from causing more damage than is reasonable to accept. Even though a pest is present, it may not be necessary to control it. Both economics and ecology affect the decision to control or not. Exceptions are newly introduced nonnative invasive pests for which adequate data on potential spread and impact are unavailable.

The four main pest management strategies are: (1) prevention, making the forest more resistant to the invasion of pests or more resilient if attacked; (2) suppression, lowering unacceptably high pest populations to acceptable levels; (3) eradication, eliminating the pest from the ecosystem; and (4) exclusion, preventing the movement of nonnative pests into a new area. Ideally, managers will scientifically select the most effective, most environmentally friendly method (Thatcher and others 1986).