AIR2-CT93-1694 Production of a Practical Handbook on Damaging Agents in the European Forest Nurseries

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AIR Cluster IX - Forestry : Forestry : Integrated Crop Protection & Biological Control : Wood (Lignocellulose)

	Proposal No:	AIR2-CT93-1694
	Date Prepared:	November 1999
	Source:	Final report 1997

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Final report 1997

Introduction

In 1990, European scientists set up a working group (COST 813) in order to study the pests, diseases and disorders affecting forest nurseries. As a result considerable knowledge was accumulated, but that this was not shared with the managers of nurseries. Despite the underlying biological and geographical diversity, the list of damaging agents was sufficiently homogenous to envisage a book dealing with various regions of Europe. Hence, this proposal was submitted, by the COST group, to obtain funding for the production of a book for nursery managers providing an accurate account of the damaging agents, describing their biological characteristics, the damage, control methods (including alternative control methods and integrated pest management - IPM), and giving general information such as addresses of specialist consultants. The importance of the work can be related to the economical importance of the forest nurseries in Europe that produce around 2000 million forest trees each year

Due to the number of damaging agents in forest nurseries, it was decided to limit the book to the those trees produced in the greatest numbers, and to their most important damaging agents. The work was implemented in successive steps: the production of a basic text by the staff, correction by the participants and other scientists as required to cover variations in biology and geographic location, and a last revision by the Management group.

Activities

Two introductory chapters give first a general description of the various biotic agents (fungi, viruses, bacteria, mites, insects and nematodes) presented in the book and then outline the steps required to establish a correct diagnosis. Two identification guides, based on the general knowledge of the participants, were completely constructed de novo. The Systematic part, was first constructed by the staff and then discussed in detail by the participants. This is, for the great part, based on the COST leaflets and on existing literature. Many general textbooks and other publications were used to construct these chapters. In general the part covering IPM has an original structure, discussed in detail by the Management Group, and completed by numerous bibliographical sources. The annexes on European regulation and on pesticides were drawn up by participants; other annexes were compiled by the staff from information given by the participants. The staff also regularly consulted nursery managers to obtain their opinion about the accessibility of the texts and to complete the list of pictures needed.

Each text, prepared by the staff, was submitted several times to all the participants. They checked the scientific value of the texts and, as required, added regional information, and returned their remarks to the staff. In some cases, the participants consulted other, for instance more specialised, scientists in their respective countries, in view to improve the quality of the texts. The personal experience of each participant was used to complete the bibliographical information.

Most of the illustrations come from the participants and collaborators. In many cases, pictures were already available; for other damaging agents, new material was necessary. Drawings were used to illustrate life cycles resulting in a book, that is about 300 pages and has been/will be translated into various languages, contains:

• a general introduction and a description of the categories of damaging agents;
• two identification guides (a host-based guide, and a general one), as it was considered that a correct determination is the most important step in order to control accurately the damaging agents
• a detailed systematic part (for each agent: symptoms, signs and damage, causal agent, attacked hosts, influencing factors, control), with about 120 pictures and 40 drawings
• a thorough description of the Integrated Pest Management methods, which will progressively replace the present chemical Pest control. This IPM takes into account the differences in damage extent in function of the tree types grown, cultivation methods, site, climate and other factors of genetic or environmental resistance:
• various annexes on European regulations on plant exchange, on pesticides and so on with useful addresses.

Conclusions

The following benefits are expected from publication of the Handbook:

• To help the nursery growers to identify correctly the damaging agents.
• To propose adequate control methods allowing an improvement of the quality of the nursery products and, consequently, the quality of the resulting European forests.
• To promote an IPM approach more compatible with the environmental needs in this field of intensive production.
• To be grounded on a very broad scale in Europe and returning all the information obtained back to the same entity.
• To provide socio-economic support to regions, generally less favoured, where nurseries are often located.