Best Management Practices

Tree fruit growers face numerous and often conflicting pressures when it comes to pest management. Producing high quality pest free fruit is obviously of paramount importance; however, growers must also seriously consider the cost of production as well as potential adverse impacts of pest management programs on neighboring land uses and natural resources. In the Hood River Valley, fruit growers are faced with the challenges of avoiding pesticide contamination of surface water and the progressive restrictions on the use of OP insecticides.

The Areawide II and Best Management Practices projects are separate projects, but they have complementary goals of helping growers respond to these challenges. In the Hood River Valley, these projects have worked together towards achieving those goals. This Handbook is a joint effort of the two projects. The Handbook is intended to provide a practical guide to implementing the best management practices for pesticide use for tree fruit growers in the Hood River Valley and elsewhere…