Monitoring of the Overall Program

Need for the Consortium: As discussed in previous sections, the Consortium formed two years in advance of this RFP based on the need for multiple Departments and Agencies to work more holistically and effectively within the government sector and with private and non-profit groups. Without the Consortium, it is clear that saltcedar, YST and giant reed would continue to out manuver us and continue to spread and exert extensive damage. Through this Consortium and the proposed research and implementation work presented, we believe that we will be better able to contain these invasive species, develop and implement effective controls and hopefully suppress their destructive populations. We strongly encourage IFAFS to consider this proposal as it comes from a preformed Consortium that has demonstrated its ability to conduct the proposed work and accomplish several highly significant goals important for agriculture and the natural environment.

Evaluating scientific accomplishments: The scientific accomplishments of this project will be assessed annually through written reports, oral summary presentations/ discussions, and field implementation/ evaluations made directly with program customers. We will follow a scientific evaluation format that combines two successful process that the Lead P.I. (R. Carruthers) has used in assessing and reviewing two other large-scale pest management projects. As a National Program Leader for USDA-ARS, Dr. Carruthers was involved in structuring and conducting annual scientific accomplishments for a 5-year Interagency Whitefly Management Program, and for TEAM Leafy Spurge, an Area-wide IPM Implementation program. For this consortium project, we plan to combine the most effective assessment methods from each of these previous programs into one practical, informative and effective scientific review process. This will be done to rapidly present results, obtain scientific feedback and adjust research and action programs as necessary to maximize the production of beneficial products and to speed in the transfer of technology to interested stakeholders and cooperators. To initiate the program, a "kick-off" Consortium meeting will be held at the USDA-ARS Western Regional Research Center (WRRC) in Albany, CA (location of administrative management for this program). At this meeting, the final stages of our detailed programmatic planning will be conducted and administrative functions outlined to all participants (see below for administrative oversight). Once program resources are in place, final program plans will be discussed in operational teams and then reviewed and discussed before the entire Consortium membership. All critical programmatic issues will be presented to the Ad-hoc Management Committee who will be responsible for making final project decisions. After the initial program meeting, the entire Consortium will meet once a year to review scientific progress and adjust operational plans for the up-coming season. This meeting will be open to all interested parties and will require the participation of all personnel that receive resources from the project. We anticipate meeting in early-winter so that each subproject will have ample time to summarize field season results and propose new plans for the next field season.

All three project Tasks, will report to the overall Consortium by providing a written project summary, using the format of the Annual Report of the 5-year Whitefly Research and Development Program (Henneberry et al. 1994). Based on the accumulated reports, a summary presentation will then be developed and given at the annual meeting by a lead participant in each major objective of the Consortium plan. This will be followed by a group discussion of program accomplishments and future plans. Following these discussions, operational subgroups will disperse into breakout sessions where final field plans will be further discussed and implementation proposals adjusted for final consideration by the Ad-hoc Committee. This committee will review and adjust all funding levels for Task 3 (the area-wide implementation of program activities) within a 30 day period and then annual resources will be released to the participants. In this way, resources will be evaluated annually and directed most effectively toward needed project activities. This will also allow the implementation portion of the project to have direct customer oversight as they serve major roles on the Ad-hoc Management Committee. Task 1, the benefit/ risk assessment workshop and Task 2, and the experimental research effort, will also present their results to the overall Consortium. Their resources, however, will be dedicated to cooperating institutions in a more long-term fashion (due primarily too longer-term objectives and personnel commitments), but still only allocated annually. If projects fail to produce the expected products due to lack of scientific rigor or mismanagement, the Consortium will be required to recommend to the administrative agent (USDA-ARS) to terminate funding for that subproject.

Administration: USDA-ARS has been selected as the lead institution for this Consortium Project. As a major Agency within USDA, ARS will administer the project resources as a service to the Consortium with only 10% Indirect Research Costs (IRC), charged to the project. Due to the burden of overseeing numerous subprojects and the allocation of resources to subcontracting institutions through Specific Cooperative Agreements and insuring accurate monetary oversight, the WRRC Budget Office will hire one added GS-5 (term-appointment) Budget Analyst with project resources. Project funds will be administered primarily through USDA-ARS budgetary channels where practical, however, annual allocations will be made to cooperating institutions on an annual basis. This will be accomplished either through direct fund transfer to other USDA agencies or through SCA to other institutions. The funds will be distributed based on the original budget as outlined in section 7.0 of this document under four year contracts (revised annually), or as altered through recommendations of the Consortium Ad-hoc Management Committee and approved by the Project Leader (Lead P.I.). To facilitate project budget operations, the WRRC Administrative Officer will attend the business portions of the Consortium annual meeting and advise the Project P.I.s on procedural issues related to resource allocation and federal project reporting. As previously described, the Consortium will be managed by the Project Co-PIs and the Co-coordinators of the Consortium (see section 3.1 and figure 3). In addition, the Lead PI will supervise a post-doctoral assistant that will spend 25% of his/her time assisting with Program Management and Coordination activities such a annual report preparation, technology transfer assistance, as well as filling a major research role in the project. For budgetary purposes, funding for this position has been allocated to Task 2. All reports, technology transfer information, and other important Consortium project details will be made available at an interactive world wide web site maintained by the UC Davis Weed Resource and Information Center (WeedRIC) in conjunction with the current webpages of the USDA-ARS Exotic and Invasive Weed Research Unit (see http://wric.ucdavis.edu/exotic/exotic.htm).