Articles
EVOLUTION OF A PESTICIDE SAFETY WEBSITE – COOPERATIVE EXTENSION AGENTS HELP DEFINE TARGET AUDIENCE NEEDS
Article number
999_30
Pages
221 – 225
Language
English
Abstract
The Pesticide Environmental Stewardship website, http:// pesticidestewardship.org, was funded by the National Science Foundation Center for Integrated Pest Management to summarize general principles of pesticide stewardship and to direct users to key resources (including state-specific regulations) by stewardship topic.
There are eleven topic areas including recordkeeping, disposal, drift, surface and groundwater, wildlife and pollinators, storage, handling containers, spills, calibration, integrated pest management, and terms and acronyms.
Initially the site targeted commercial pesticide applicators but a review of the environmental impacts of pesticide mismanagement identified the importance of expanding the site to target homeowners as well.
Prior to enhancing the website a national survey of Cooperative Extension agents was conducted to identify the pesticide related questions they receive from homeowners most frequently, the difficulty of obtaining information on those topics, as well as their recommendations for most effective strategies for presenting the information to homeowners.
In addition, Extension agents were asked to identify their primary concerns related to homeowner pesticide applications.
The homeowner section of the website was developed based on the results of the surveys.
There are eleven topic areas including recordkeeping, disposal, drift, surface and groundwater, wildlife and pollinators, storage, handling containers, spills, calibration, integrated pest management, and terms and acronyms.
Initially the site targeted commercial pesticide applicators but a review of the environmental impacts of pesticide mismanagement identified the importance of expanding the site to target homeowners as well.
Prior to enhancing the website a national survey of Cooperative Extension agents was conducted to identify the pesticide related questions they receive from homeowners most frequently, the difficulty of obtaining information on those topics, as well as their recommendations for most effective strategies for presenting the information to homeowners.
In addition, Extension agents were asked to identify their primary concerns related to homeowner pesticide applications.
The homeowner section of the website was developed based on the results of the surveys.
Authors
C.S. Church, R.E. Stinner, W.G. Buhler, L.K. Bradley
Keywords
web based learning, homeowner education, consumer, commercial applicator, professional applicator, pesticide stewardship, internet, website
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