Back in 2012, the Western IPM Center supported
a Signature Program to develop educational material to prevent pesticides from
entering surface and groundwater. The authors, from four Western states, developed PowerPoint slides sets for trainers to use in presentations to the
agricultural industry, to landscape professionals, or to homeowners. The slides were posted
on-line in January 2013, for free, but we asked for name, email,
employer, city and state to gather evaluation information.
There were 106 total downloads
and several individuals downloaded more than one slide set. People from 20 U.S.
states, the District of Columbia and one Canadian providence downloaded slides
with the top states being 41 downloads in California, nine in Oregon, five in Idaho, and four
each in Hawaii, Iowa, North Dakota and New York. People from universities,
extension, or county agriculture commissioners offices downloaded slide sets 39
times; agricultural and landscape industries 28 times; city, county, state or
federal government agencies 18 times; and water quality control boards or waterkeeper
groups eight times.
Survey and results
In April 2014, a survey was sent
to 89 individuals who had downloaded at least one of the three slide sets. Six
emails were returned undeliverable. There were 12 responses for a response rate
of 14.5%. The questions and responses are summarized below.
1. Why
did you download the Water Quality Protection Slide set from the Western IPM
Center? (multiple answers allowed)
50% (6/12) to prepare for a presentation
25% (3/12) to share with colleagues
17% (2/12) for my own personal education
42% (5/12) curious to see what information was
covered in the slides
0% other
2.
Which Water Quality Protection Slide set(s) did you download? (multiple answers
allowed)
75% (9/12) Water Quality Protection Measures for
Agriculture
66.7 % (8/12) Water
Quality Protection Measures for Landscape Professionals
66.7% (8/12) Water Quality Protection Measures for
Homeowners
3.
Did you increase your knowledge on the use of pesticide handling best
management practices to protect water quality?
75%
(9/12) Yes 17%
(2/12) No 8%
(1/12) Did not answer
4. Did
you change your pesticide handling practices as a result of the information
presented in the Water Quality Protection Slides?
0% Yes 33.3% (4/12) No 66.7% (8/12) Not applicable
5.
If yes, how did you change your pesticide handling practices?
One
person who answered “No” explained that he/she was using the slides to make
sure he/she was doing everything possible to keep pesticides out of water
resources.
6. Did
you give a presentation using the slide set?
25% (3/12) Yes, gave a presentation using all or most
of the slide set
25% (3/12) Yes, gave a presentation using some of the
slides in the set
50% (6/12) No
7. Which Water Quality Protection Slide set(s) did you use for
the presentation? (multiple answers allowed)
50% (3/6) Water Quality Protection Measures for Agriculture
66.7% (4/6) Water Quality Protection Measures for
Landscape Professionals
16.7% (1/6) Water Quality Protection Measures for
Homeowners
8. If you used all or parts of
the slide set for presentation(s), to whom did you give the presentation(s) and
how many people attended?
Commercial
applicators - about 250
Presentation to
Pest Control Businesses - 52
Undergraduate
students - 30
Iowa Certified
Handlers – 200
Iowa Seed
Treatment Continuing Instructional Course - 800
To a group of
about 100 municipal staffers. Mostly
parks and rec maintenance workers
Landscape and
turf management professionals
9. If you gave a presentation, did the audience members
increase their knowledge of pesticide handling best management practices to
protect water quality?
66.7% (4/6) Yes 33.3% (2/6) of presenters No
10. If
yes, how did the audience members say they increased their knowledge of
pesticide handling practices?
‘Yes’
answers based on anecdotal evidence.
‘No’
answers based on acknowledging a lack of evaluation data.
11. If you gave a presentation, did the audience members
indicate plans to change their pesticide handling practices in order to protect
water quality?
50% (3/6) Yes
33% (2/6) No
17 % (1/6) No answer
12. If
yes, how did the audience members say they planned to change their pesticide
handling practices?
‘Yes’
answers based on anecdotal evidence.
13.
Did the slide set meet your needs?
100%
(12/12) Yes
14.
If no, how could they be improved to meet your needs?
There
were no answers to this question
15.
Is there any additional feedback you would like to give the Western IPM Center
regarding the Water Quality Protection Slide Sets?
“Very
nice quality. I would suggest doing a color commentary audio narrated version
video clip of the presentations. Use Camtasia or Adobe Presenter. This would be
targeted at the presenter and not necessarily towards the end user.”
“Thanks
for putting together those slide sets. They were helpful for self-study for our
grounds maintenance crew at the County.”
“Didn't
like the red banners in the Ag slide set.”
“Thank
you for sharing!”
“The
slides are a good educational resource, I didn't end up using them because they
were a little too basic for my purposes. I work for the water quality regulatory
agency, so I am glad these presentations are available for others because these
are the basic principles we are trying to educate about to prevent water
quality problems.”
Summary
The
response rate was 14.5%, which may have been influenced by the time between the
release of the slide sets and the survey. The survey was planned to give people
sufficient time to have given a presentation prior to the survey. However, 15
months may have been too long. Most of the survey responses (10/12) were from
people who downloaded more than one slide set. While this is not representative
of the whole group, it does capture data from those most interested in the
water quality protection topic.
Most
of the respondents increased their knowledge of water quality protection during
pesticide application but were not responsible for applying pesticides. This is
not surprising since the slides sets were intended to “train-the-trainers.”
Half of the respondents gave a presentation using “most” or “some” of the slide
sets. Two-thirds gave presentations to landscape professionals and half gave
presentations to agricultural groups. Presentations on protecting water quality
from pesticides reached more than 1,400 audience members. Presenters responded
that audience members increased their knowledge of water quality protection
measures and would change their pesticide handling practices, however all
responses were based on anecdotal evidence.
In
conclusion, the water quality slide sets were downloaded by a large number of
people across the United States. Based on self-evaluation, the slide sets
increased the knowledge of the majority of people who downloaded them. Those
who gave presentations based on the slide sets did not have evaluation data to demonstrate
the audience members either increased their knowledge or would change
practices, but did have anecdotal evidence to suggest this was the case. All of
the survey respondents stated the slide set met their needs.
