American Phytopathological Society
Oct. 18, 2001
The 61st annual meeting of the Northeastern Division was held on October 17-19, 2001, in Cromwell, CT at the Radisson Hotel and Convention Center. The business meeting was held at 5:00 p.m. on October 18. The Northeast Division met together with the Potomac Division for the first part of the business meeting
President Bruce Clarke called the meeting to order. Councilor-elect Meg McGrath asked for a moment of silence in memory of Clark Rogerson, NY Botanic Garden, John E. Elliston, CT Agricultural Experiment Station, Dale Hiondal, mycologist, West Virgina University, David Quin, Extension specialist, West Virginia University, Paul W. Steiner, plant pathologist, University of Maryland, and Howard Heggestad, plant physiologist,USDA, Beltsville, Maryland, all of whom passed away since the November 2000 meeting.
Bruce Clarke then introduced Noel Keen, President of the APS, who addressed the Divisions. President Noel Keen was pleasantly surprised at the number of attending persons during the meeting. He proceeded to describe that the APS headquarters had taken a loss last year of $116,000, part of which is attributed to the launching of the on-line journal Plant Health Progress and the special sessions held in Salte Lake City with SON and MSA. However, he mentioned that this budget pitfall should not be viewed with alarm. Since its establishment, Plant Health Progress is a successful addition to the other existing journals. He urged all division members to encourage the entomologists of our division to join and publish in APS on-line journals, and also help in recruiting new members in order to balance out the loss.
One of the president’s mandates is to increase the federal funding for agricultural research. Some lobbying has been done by APS headquarters which was instrumental in lobbying senators for the agriculture-genomics bill, an issue used to prompt the USDA and Congress for more funding in the agricultural sector. The theme of the next plenary session that will be held in Milwaukee is “Agricultural Research Funding” with possible potential speakers such as a USDA deputy or a senator such as Senator Cole who serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
APS is an evolving society and the demographics are radically changing. Noel mentioned that change in the APS governance should reflect the membership. Noel mentioned the issue of APS governance (the Madden report) and discussed the evolution of the council and the recent establishment of several boards including the Meeting Board with a Section Chair and the Planning Board with a chair. One issue that the Madden report highlights is how representation to Council should be established. The report recommends that representation to Council should be limited to a few representatives and that the partition of council membership should be based in subject matter areas. The drawback of this is the under-representation of APS divisions.
Erik Stromberg (Potomac Concilor) of Blacksburg, Virginia reported that a new APS logo was chosen from among 40 other suggested logos. The new logo was approved and accepted by Council in Salt Lake City.
Cindy Ash presented the news from APS press and encouraged attending members to publish some of their work in the on-line journal “Plant Health Progress”. It is a multi-disciplinary journal and is a new peer reviewed, citable publication. Annual subscription for PHP is $40 annually. She also mentioned that a 10% discount on all APS books along with a special promotional gift will be given to new members.
Barb Christ (NED Councilor) then presented the Governance report that was discussed separately by the Potomac and the NE divisions. The report included information on representation from industry on the Industry Board and on the future national APS meeting sites. Charlotte, NC is the proposed site for the 2003 meeting, followed by Anaheim, CA in 2004 and Austin TX in 2005. The 2006 site has not been determined due to lack of a suitable place. She also reported on the financial year which ended in a net loss of $116,302 partly attributed to audiovisual costs. The results of the APS membership survey stressed the importance of recruiting new professionals and international members and continuing to provide travel grants. The Councilor’s report also included congratulations for the NED-APS past-president Steve Slack for his contribution to the Society, and congratulations were also extended to Richard Belanger for his elections as the junior Councilor-at-large, Gary Bergstrom as Vice President, Steve Johnson for his appointment as the editor of Phytopathology News, Margery Daughtrey’s appointment as communication coordinator of Office of PublicAffairs and Education, and last but not least George Abawi as the director of the Office of International Programs. (At this point, the two Divisions separated to hold individual meetings).
Margery Daughtrey then presented the minutes of the 2000 NED-APS meeting, held in N. Falmouth, Mass. Those present unanimously approved the minutes. Suha Jabaji-Hare presented the secretary/treasurer’s report, which indicated that the NED had a balance of $11,180.81 as of the fiscal year (July 2001). She also reported that 92 members registered for the Cromwell meeting, and a total of 220 registered for the perennial symposium.
Local Arrangements Committee- Wade Elmer headed up the local arrangements at Cromwell, CT. The meeting included 43 paper presentations as well as a number of special events enjoyed by the 92 registrants. . An educational forestry tour on chestnut blight research (led by Sandra Anagnostakis) and a Jurassic trip to the Dinosaur State Park (led by Richard Kreuger, an Environmental Educator with the Park) preceded the traditional meeting of extension and industry that was chaired by Steve Johnson and Brent Lackey. The team of students and researchers nicknamed “Quebec hybrids” won the phytopathological ‘Jeopardy’ game hosted by Richard Belanger, Wade Elmer and Margery Daughtrey during the social.
Bruce Clarke, filling in for Odile Carisse, announced that the 2002 NE-APS meeting will be held on October 2-4 at Chateau Bromont, Bromont (near Montreal) Quebec. An outreach tour may be considered.
Site Selection Committee- Wade Elmer announced that the site for 2003 will be New Hampshire headed by Cheryl Smith as the local Arrangement Committee chairperson, and that there will be a meeting in Pennsylvania in 2004, followed by Rhode Island in 2005.
Symposium Planning-Peter Oudemans reported the success of the Sampling Plant Pathogens Symposium which he had chaired with Eric Weibel. Peter began the symposium with “Sampling Biodiversity”. Presentations by Sherri Morris of Bradley University, Il, and William Turechek, of Cornell, NY generated good discussion.
Industry Report-John Lublinkof of AgraQuest talked about the current status of Serenade fungicides. Brent Lackey (Syngenta) discussed the current status of federally labeled Syngenta fungicides Switch and Omega. Carl Thomas (BASF) reviewed the current and pending BASF fungicide labels for Ronilan, Cabrio, Headline and Insignia as well as BASF-numbered fungicides in various stages of development. Finally, Jeff Heuther, (Cerexagri) introduced the recently federally labelled Cuprofix Disperss Fungicide and updated the status of Topsin-M fungicide as a replacement for Benlate with the possibility of a Section 18 label for blueberries. (Report was submitted by Jeff Heuther).
Extension Committee- In excess of 24 people attended with 12 state reports on new diseases and up-dates on occurrences of note.
· Fusarium fruit rot on pumpkin and fireblight on apple were severe in Connecticut this year. The first report of Daylily Rust was presented. Daylily Streak in the state was discussed as was the state’s participation in the Plum Pox Virus survey (none detected). Phytophthora Blight on cucurbits was especially severe in New Jersey this year.
· If the Phytophthora present on potato is P. capsici, then this would be a new host and could present major problems. Bacterial spot on Pepper caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv syringae, rather than Xanthomonas campestris, was discussed. Powdery mildew was seen on pepper for the first time. Bentgrass dead spot was especially severe on new golf greens in New Jersey.
· There is a new phenomenon: white cranberry juice. This year was the first harvest in Massachusetts and offers a totally different, less tart taste. The first case of Blueberry Scorch was discussed. There was a high incidence of Phomopsis in some vineyards, especially where there was good control of Botrytis. Plectosporium blight on zucchini and Bacterial leaf spot of pepper were severe.
· Poinsettia scab and fireblight on hybrid tea roses were found in Maryland. Daylily rust and Drechslera on an ornamental grass were noted. Rose rosette is becoming more widespread.
· Late blight on tomato was very severe causing much defoliation in West Virginia.
· More Sclerotinia has been seen recently in Vermont, especially on greenhouse tomatoes and eggplants.
· A new disease on the Chinese fringe tree appeared in Delaware. Pumpkins, watermelons and cucumbers suffered from Phytophthora blight. Soybean Severe Stunt Virus appeared in the state. Iris rust was also seen for the first time.
· Virginia reported stripe rust in wheat.
· The Plum Pox Survey in Pennsylvania is progressing with 36 positives out of over 9000 samples. Daylily rust has appeared. Phytophthora palmivora has incited root and stem rots on geranium.
· Maine has no reported potato wart found where it was found in Prince Edward Island (PEI) last year. The process has gone political and PEI is shipping potato seed out of the province. A dry season resulted in little late blight or pink rot.
· Powdery mildew on Sedum appeared in New York. Daylily rust, Phleospora on elm and Cedar apple rust were present. Bacterial diseases were a greater problem on some vegetable crops than previous years on Long Island. Conditions were particularly favourable as many rain events were storms with heavy, wind-driven rain. Bacterial speck (Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato) was prevalent in tomato fields. Substantial losses to Bacterial brown spot (Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae) on snap beans occurred.
Sharon Douglas was unanimously elected to be the next secretary of the Extension Committee, to be chairperson in 2003. Report submitted by Meg McGrath and Steve Johnson.
Awards Committee- Richard Belanger reported that the NED Award of Merit was given to Steve Johnston of Rutgers. No nominations were forwarded for the Early Career Award. Richard Belanger stressed the necessity of redefining the guidelines and criteria for this award.
Graduate Student Award Committee-Committee members in attendence were Jim LaMondia (Chair), David Rosenberger, Jim White, and Russell Tweddell. The committee met jointly with the Potomac Division graduate student award committee and the competition was combined. Potomac Division Committee members in attendance: Arv Grybauskas, George Lacy, Clarissa Balbalian, and Seong Hwan Kim. The new Chair of the NED committee is Jim White. J. LaMondia and J. Skelly will be rotating off the committee. The two new members nominated during the meeting were Wakar Uddin of Penn State University (representing Pennsylvania) and Suzanne Von Bodman of the University of Connecticut (representing southern New England). Both nominees agreed to serve.
Ten students competed in the presentation competition held Thursday October 11. Nine were from the NED-APS and one was from the Potomac Division. The winner of the best student paper presentation was F.A. Nalim of Pennsylvania State University (“Molecular phylogenetic analysis of Fusarium avenaceum from Lisianthus”), and the runner-up was M. Filion of McGill University (“Use of quantitative real-time PCR to monitor fungal populations in soil”).
During the committee’s meeting, it was decided that it was important to recognize a runner-up in the competition and next year’s committee was encouraged to petition for additional prizes at the business meeting based on the number of students competing. For example, a single prize could be awarded to one of up to 5 student competitors, and 2 for up to 10 students. Another item that was discussed is that in future competing papers should be scheduled with a break between room changes to allow for a smooth transition without missing all or a part of competing paper. (Report submitted by Jim LaMondia).
Old Business- (Archiving, signatures on abstracts and graduate student subsidy were discussed)
New Business- Susan Whitney, President of the eastern division of the Entomology Society of America, Harrisburg suggested in an electronic mail to have a joint meeting with our division in March 2002. The concept was discussed and those in attendance decided to put off such a meeting for the present time.
Bruce Clarke seriously questioned the impact of the new structure of APS Governance on the membership and the role of our division. He expressed that the NE division has active members and with the newly proposed structure, representation of our division will be demoted.
The new officers for 2002 were announced:
Margery Daughtrey, President
Suha Jabaji-Hare, Vice President
Gary Moorman, Secretary-Treasurer
Barbara Christ, Division Councilor
Margaret McGrath, Councilor-Elect
The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Suha Jabaji-Hare