The connecticut agricultural experiment station receives mcintire-stennis act capacity funding to address the challenges and priority areas identified by connecticut residents

The priority research areas include: (1) management and sustainability of forest resources: for example, mcintire-stennis project accession no. 1023296 supports continued surveillance of the distribution and severity of beach leaf disease in connecticut, as well as genetic analysis of samples to understand how the pathogen is moving among sites. . Another example is mcintire- stennis project accession no. 1024391 exploring the use of biological controls to control hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA, adelges tsugae), along with investigating the influence of climatic factors on HWA. Biological control agents, including the introduced ladybeetle predator (sasajiscymnus tsugae), are the only viable alternative to maintaining this integral part of our forest ecosystems. Another example is mcintire-stennis project accession no. 1018306 that has been examining the biological control of emerald ASH borer (agrilus planipennis) in forest ecosystems. While data is somewhat preliminary, the establishment, spread and persistence of the two larval EAB parasitoids has been documented. Furthermore, the impact of the parasitoids on the pest is reducing their rate of population growth, which hopefully will allow ASH to return to our forests. (2) integrated pest management systems: for example, mcintire-stennis project accession no. 7001298 is investigating alternative host-targeted strategies reducing tick abundances in residential settings in the urban-rural interface. As lyme disease (LD) continues to be the most commonly reported vector-borne illness in the united states, babesia infection in ticks and mice is on the increase as well. A better understanding of H abitat associations in connecticut will be used to improve public health by reducing the number ticks and presumably, the number of associated tick-borne disease cases in humans and domesticated animals. (3) urban forestry: for example, mcintire-stennis project accession no. 1023745 is developing strategies to enhance stress tolerance in urban trees. Connecticut's urban areas have the highest proportion of forest cover in the united states and maintenance of a healthy canopy cover in urban areas is critical for public health, habitability of urban areas, reduction and abatement of carbon emissions, and biodiversity. Research will benefit not only urban residents, but municipal officials and arborists responsible for maintaining tree health.