One of our favorite organizations, BIRC, the Bio-Integral Research Center, was recognized at the 2009 International IPM Symposium with a Lifetime International IPM Achievement award given by the IPM Institute. It stands to reason because between the original founders, William Olkowski, Helga Olkowski, and Sheila Daar — authors of the famous Common-Sense Pest Control — with the longtime leadership of William Quarles, have done some pretty great things for the entire IPM industry (not just in our little corner).
The awards committee mentioned the following during the presentation ceremony:
Without BIRC’s efforts, urban IPM and ‘green’ pest management could not have achieved the prominence they enjoy today. — Awards Committee
That’s a pretty powerful sentiment, but also consider these industry firsts BIRC is additionally credited for:
- BIRC was the first to design and implement municipal and school IPM programs.
- BIRC was the first to publish a school IPM manual.
- BIRC was the first to design an IPM program for a national park service.
- BIRC was the first to publish an international journal dedicated to the dissemination and advancement of IPM information.
- BIRC was the first to design an IPM certification program for structural pest control.
BIRC has accomplished much of this by way of its continued publications over the decades (30 years last November): The IPM Practitioner and Common-Sense Pest Control Quarterly. Both report of the latest and greatest research and innovations in IPM, though the latter is geared more towards the interests of homeowners whereas the former publication addresses the professional sector. These publications are free to members, who gets what is determined by membership level. If you’re interested, you may join BIRC from our site.
Our take: Way to go Bill and the rest of the gang over at BIRC. It’s well-deserved and perhaps even overdue. Congratulations!
Author’s Note: Some of the content in this article was excerpted directly from The IPM Practitioner, volume XXXI, number 1/2. This news is sort of old (Jan./Feb., 2009), but we just had to mention it before it got even older. Photo Credit: William Quarles’ photo courtesy of Sherry Glick, EPA.
