News Briefs
March 20, 2015
IN THIS ISSUE...

Jobs

Interested in a career in mosquito and vector control? Check out the MVCAC Job Board at www.mvcac.org

 

Have a Job or RFP to post to MVCAC.org?  

Requests to post job listings (no more than 500 words in length) should be submitted to the webmaster at kandosca@amgroup.us.

 

Do you have important news to share about your district or mosquito and vector issues?

If you would like your news to be included in the MVCAC News Briefs, please send press releases and/or links to relevant news articles to mvcac@mvcac.org
Mailing Address:
1 Capitol Mall
Suite 800
Sacramento, CA 95814
Spring Meeting 2015 Request for Agenda Items

Reminder -

 

Your spring board meeting agenda items and reports were requested by today....please have them to Kim Andosca (kandosca@amgroup.us) by Monday at 5 p.m. if at all possible.

 

Thank you and have a great weekend! 

MVCAC District Logins Available Now!

We have exciting news!  District logins are now available on the new and improved MVCAC.org website!  A new district login has been created for District Managers to view and update district employees, register a group of employees for MVCAC events, pay district annual dues, etc.  


 

An email was sent this morning to the District Manager email addresses on file with instructions and login information.  Please contact the MVCAC office if you did not receive the email or if you have any questions.

MVCAC Lobby Day Information and Updated Bill Status Report 

Click here to view the MVCAC Legislative Committee's updated bill status report

 

Legislative Training  Session ( Optional) - Pre registration was required

March 24, 4-6 pm

Citizen Hotel, Quorum Room 926 J St. Sacramento, CA 95814

Agenda will be sent to participants on Monday

 

Agenda for Lobby Day - (Part of Registration form)

March 25, 2015
Citizen Hotel,  926 J Street,  Sacramento, CA 95814

Registration for this event is now closed

The Citizen Hotel is sold out.  Please feel free to call the MVCAC office if you would like other recommendations in the area. 

8:30AM - Continental Breakfast in Quorum Room

9AM - Short Program - Ed Manning review of Legislative Materials and emphasis for the day and then to legislator appointments.

  

We have 18 Districts signed up with 40 attendees for Lobby Day.   That covers approximately 54 assembly Districts and 38 Senate Districts in my rough count ( Might have missed  overlapping representation)  which puts in a little better or same  coverage as last year.  Last year we had 44 attendees and Covered 50 Assembly members and 29 Senators.

 

Legislative Materials are located on MVCAC website under Legislative Action Tab. 

MVCAC 2015 Spring Meeting

April 29- May 1

Click here to view the final schedule

Doubletree by Hilton, Modesto

1150 9th Street, Modesto

Call 1-800-445-8667 to make your room reservation.
The group room rate at $84.00 plus taxes

The hotel cut off for this meeting is next week, make sure you register and reserve your room ASAP!


Click the "register now" button below to login and register today!

California Honors Three Groups for Reducing Pesticide Risk
SACRAMENTO - The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has announced the winners of the 2014 Integrated Pest
Management (IPM) Innovator Award, the department's highest honor. The awards go to three organizations for their work in finding
innovative ways to solve pest problems while reducing the use of chemical pesticides.

"These awards are a way of recognizing the creative and effective methods people are using to tackle pests," said Mark Robertson of DPR's Pest Management and Licensing branch. "Their approaches often involve huge commitments of time, research and a determination to effectively control pests without harming the environment".


The people pictured are Jeremy Wittie, Jennifer Henke, and Jill Oviatt from Coachella Valley MVCD and Brian R. Leahy, Director of CDPR.


Congratulations to our members at Coachella Valley MVCD!
Webinar: Managing Pesticide Application and Resistance Testing (PART) Data Using the CalSurv Gateway

Wed, Apr 8; 9-10 AM

 

Course Content (1-hour webinar, with additional time for any questions if needed)

  1. Setting your agency and user preferences
  2. Managing pesticide applications
    • Defining mosquito sources
    • Application data entry
  3. Pesticide Resistance
    • Data entry for bioassays
    • Calculators & analysis tools
  4. Making PART work with your local software system
    • Web services
    • Data upload from in-house software
    • Data export for local use
    • Reporting to county ag commissioners & DPR
2015 Mosquito Pool Orders
The ordering process for mosquito pool tests has been changed for 2015.  Instead of submitting an order form and prepayment to MVCAC, districts can forgo that step and simply send in their pool tests without prepaying/ordering through MVCAC. MVCAC staff will send out bills to districts for pool tests used as bills are received from UC Davis. Prompt payment of your invoice when received is appreciated.

This hopefully will eliminate any unnecessary confusion with districts having to prepay and estimate pool test usage before the season starts.

As always, feel free to contact the office if you have any questions.

IMPORTANT: Data Collection on Mosquito Control Expenditures on State Lands 

Dear MVCAC Members,

There are two time sensitive items that I need everyone to be aware of and provide assistance if possible. 

 

Send in your state lands treatment cost data before it's too late!

MVCAC representatives will be meeting with CDFW next week to work on implementation of AB 896.  It is very important that we follow through with implementing this bill in order for us to build on it in the future.  For this we need each of you to please submit records of treatment costs your agency has done on state owned lands in the format provided.  Peter Bonkrude has provided this link (http://bit.ly/1vwasCC) to a map which identifies state lands and vector control agencies.  Please use it to develop your report and send it directly to Vanessa Cajina, VCajina@ka-pow.com,  as soon as possible. 

 

CDFW Scientific Collecting Permit Program Changes

CDPH staff was recently asked by a state park to get a DFW collecting permit to conduct tick surveillance.   This has historically been not needed and was cause for concern that this may indicate a substantial change in CDFW policy which could potentially negatively impact MVCAC member districts.  To head this off,  Ed Manning arranged a meeting with Director Charlie Bonham, CDFW,  to discuss this matter.  Director Bonham told us that CDFW is working on streamlining their collecting permit program, and will work with the MVCAC to better define the requirements for what entities.  In order for this to proceed smoothly, we are asking all local vector control agencies to refrain from pursuing any CDFW scientific collecting permits at this time.    At this time, all surveillance and control operations conducted by vector control agencies signatory to the cooperative agreement with CDPH should not need additional scientific collecting permits.    Please direct any questions regarding this to Joel Buettner, joelb@placermosquito.org

 

NEW!  MVCAC News Brief Email Archive
 

See something in a previous issue of the MVCAC News Briefs that you can't seem to track down in your old emails?  We are excited to announce that MVCAC now has a News Brief archive!  

We'd love to hear your feedback on the archive, send us a note at mvcac@mvcac.org

Check out the new archive today!
West Nile Virus Dead Bird Testing and Hotline

West Nile virus dead bird testing and the WNV Dead Bird Hotline will begin on April 15, 2015. 

 

Live calls will be answered (1-877-WNV-BIRD) and online reports will be responded to (www.westnile.ca.gov). 

 

Agencies can bypass the message options by calling the agency line at (510-412-4601). This will connect you to the hotline operators. If you need to enter a dead bird report and obtain a dead bird number, please use the Gateway.   

MVCAC.org Login Instructions for Members
To log in to the new website, please follow the instructions below
  1. Visit our website www.mvcac.org
  2. Click the "Login" tab  
  • For first time users, please click on "Forgot your password? Click here."
    • Enter your email address on file and wait for the reset password email. Keep in mind, it takes awhile for this email to arrive. Once the email arrives, follow the link to set up your online portal. 
    • If you do not receive the email within a few hours, or the system does not recognize your email address, please contact Sarah Spencer at sspencer@amgroup.us and she will set up your login for you. 
    • If you are not in our system, you can simply click "Create a User Account."