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Tree-of-heaven spreads quickly and is difficult to control. Don’t ignore saplings and small clusters.

If you live in an area where tree-of-heaven can grow, look for it on your property. Take note of the location and create a management plan. For tree-of-heaven distribution in Oregon, see the map shown to the right or below.

Manage tree-of-heaven it before plants produce seed or spread by suckers, if possible. 

Tree-of-heaven is difficult to control. It thrives in harsh sites. It is a prolific seed producer and its seeds remain viable for several years. Lastly, tree-of-heaven spreads with vigorous suckering.

If you have established stands of tree-of-heaven on your property, set realistic management goals and take a multiyear approach.

Consider hiring a licensed pesticide applicator company to manage this tree on your property. 

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January 31, 2018 from 9:00am to 12:00pm – Food Innovation Center

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Advisory Group Kick Off

January 31, 2018 from 9:00am-12:00pm

Food Innovation Center in Portland 1207 NW Naito Parkway Portland, OR 97209 and via online connection

RSVP Here

Advisors will provide strategic and tactical guidance throughout the development, launch, and maintenance phases. Anyone can join the advisory group, as long as they support these project agreements and commit to constructive participation in quarterly meetings and related duties. The advisory group will include representatives of the following key stakeholder categories: content area experts, industry practitioners, public sector practitioners, communications specialists, community members, education specialists, Oregon Department of Agriculture, and other agencies.

All meetings are available via an online connection with screen share.

Additional meeting dates for 2018 include:

  • January 31, 2018 from 9:00am to 12:00pm – Food Innovation Center
  • April 24, 2018 from 10:00am to 12:00pm – Food Innovation Center
  • July 24, 2018 from 10:00am to 12:00pm – Food Innovation Center
  • October 23, 2018 from 10:00am to 12:00pm – Food Innovation Center

Extension Innovative Funds request video

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EN ESPANOL Questionnaire_fall_2017docx

Questionnaire- Vietnamese

VIETNAMESE Questionnaire

 

 

General funding request video

See the funding request video.

We are initiating a community-supported information service to make the important content outlined in this proposal available to people in Oregon and beyond. Funding is being sought from other OSU administrative units; government agencies are being asked to provide cash contributions to underwrite budget items appropriate to their mission; tax-deductible donations are being solicited from businesses, community groups, and individuals; and grants are being pursued from private and corporate foundations whose funding interests are aligned with the goals of this educational service. Permissions are being sought from OSU’s Foundation and Research Office to apply for additional grants as an OSU funding priority.
OSU Innovative challenge video

See the two-minute video on YouTube (application to OSU Extension Innovative grant program).

See the Fundraising Case Statement and Postcard for more information.
Video script

SolvePestProblems.org.

What is the problem?

Pest problems in the home and landscape happen to people of all ages and there is an increasing number of pest problems here in Oregon and across the Pacific Northwest.

Why does the solution not currently exist?

Currently, there is no unified strategy or educational resource to help Oregonians diagnose pest and plant problems and determine safe and effective management strategies for homes, landscapes, and public areas.

Who is the audience and how will the innovation impact their lives?

Resoundingly, stakeholders have requested (and provided contracts) for OSU to plan this high-priority information service geared toward important audiences that are currently under-served by OSU’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) resources. These groups include

The general public.
Landscape professionals and retail nursery workers.
Professional land managers.
Master Gardener, Master Beekeeper, and Master Naturalist volunteers.

We believe that providing access to research-based information on people’s mobile devices and computers can help them manage pest problems and to minimize the risk of pesticide exposure to people and our environment.

What is the approach?

Text content will be written in simple language, in both English and Spanish, and a wealth of pictures and drawings will empower users to diagnose problems and determine the best solution.

As a design-informed community resource, we will engage stakeholders in the development of the content through focus groups and an advisory council. An outcomes-based evaluation process will provide rich feedback to the OSU team. The results will be shared with funders, stakeholders, and the broader scientific community.

Why is this team the right group to tackle the problem?

This project will bring together the best of OSU, including

Administrative support and permissions from the College of Agricultural Sciences and associated foundations.
Content experts from Department of Horticulture across the state to set priorities, establish an outline and review content for factual accuracy.
Toxicologists from the Integrated Plant Protection Center (IPPC) to analyze risks of pesticides to the human health and environment.
Experts from Extension and Experiment Station Communications (EESC) to develop technology and communications strategies.
A team of contractors and staff to build out at least 660 content pages.

Why is now the time?

Based on over two years of planning, we are ready to assemble our team of OSU faculty, staff and contractors.

We are requesting $200,000 in innovative funds to catalyze this information resource. These funds will be leveraged by $775,000 in pledged contributions, which will enable us to initiate base development for this mission-critical public service.

Timeline

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July – December 2017

Conduct community engagement and planing process per $105,000 cash contract from Metro.

Fundraising and establish development contracts.

January – June 2018

Initiate technology development

Costs: $200,000 over two years

Funds available: $145,000 ($30,000 OSU Pollinator Health; $30,000 from Metr0; $85,000 from EMSWCD).

Initiate base content development for pesticide risk reduction displays.

 

 

Cost analysis

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Cost analysis for four year development

See the full cost analysis here: cost_analysis_6_26_2017

This analysis includes fixed costs to develop base pesticide communications content and technology ($1,254,324) and variable costs to develop 660+ content pages ($2,061,675) based on the variable cost calculator below.  Total development costs are projected to be $3,315,999 in direct costs.  Indirect costs are not included here since they will vary according to the income streams generated for this project.

Variable cost calculator

Variable cost calculator for content development.
Variable cost calculator for content development.

Spanish language content pages will be translated from the content developed for each topic and adjusted for cultural relevancy. The estimated cost for including this content is anticipated to be about 75% of the cost development of the original English language content. We anticipate a team of staff and contractors will develop the Spanish language content.

It is likely that efficiencies will be gained by developing 660+ pages and it is possible that the OSU team will be able to decrease the cost of development per page. In this case, funds will be applied toward building additional pest management content, based on state-wide stakeholder priorities.

 

Content Development Plan- DRAFT

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The overarching goal for this major content development effort is to provide scientifically accurate information that is written for an eighth grade reading level and easily understandable and to provide substantial visual content to help users diagnose the problem, determine possible management strategies, and take informed action.

OSU content team: Determine specific topics to be covered per content area for a total of at least 660 content pages, roughly allocated as follows:

Content areas Number pages
Pesticide information and pollinator pages 40
Household pests 35
Animal pests 15
Weeds 140
How-to horticulture guides 40
Plant problems 390
Lawns and turf 35
Berries, fruits, and nuts 125
Vegetables and melons 90
Ornamental plants 120
Houseplants 10
Indoor gardening 10
Total 660

See the Content outline  from the 2016 project plan, which fulfilled the original contract for this project.

At this time, there are 620 content pages for which we need to assign roles based on the projected cost  of $3,214 per content page in both English- and Spanish-languages.

Roles and Responsibilities

Here are the roles associated with content development for SolvePestProblems.org:

Role Content development responsibilities Staff role
Manage project Develop funding streams through grants, contracts and gifts and administer project. Supervise staff. Project manager
Coordinate project Assign content, review content, oversee revision or additional research, enforce deadlines, and answer questions from writers. Coordinate review process. Project coordinator
Content owner Provide list of existing educational resources to use for researching individual content pages including text, photos, and references. Determine what is most important to convey to retain scientific accuracy. Content owner
Write content Interpret provided source content at an 8th grade reading level. Follow tone, voice, and other writers’ guidelines. Identify representative images from public sources for licensure. Document sources of all content. Professional writer

 
Illustrate visual content Ensure consistency among all illustrations by creating a plan for the desired look. Create simple and complex illustrations from provided reference images. Follow instructions about desired emphasis of illustrations. Elicit feedback from project team to ensure problem is accurately portrayed. Illustrator
Seek permissions Track permissions for use of content in a spreadsheet including file name, content owner contact information, and date. Briefly summarize each communication. Document link to online content. Determine and document whether the site is the original posting or a site established by another user. Save written consent document and track its location. Project coordinator
Contribute photographs Provide photographs with title, description and credit attribution to support website content. OSU faculty, volunteers and partners
Edit content Content owner or supervised staff will review for factual accuracy of content for initial site building and annual review. Content owner
High-level editor

 

 Ensure that the content is aligned with overall project communication goals, messages and strategies. Provide higher level content review. Project coordinator
Copy edit content Review materials for typos, grammar, and consistency of tone, voice, tense, writing style and AP style (terminology, acronyms, etc.) Copy editor
Post and review content on website Post content to website. Verify that content titles, chunks of content, taxonomy, tags, metadata, breadcrumbs and other backend tasks are correct. Website technology manager
Oversee future content editing Ensure factual and scientific accuracy of content. Track changes of information with scientific knowledge, emerging pests and changes with pesticide registrations. Suggest changes for yearly updates. Content owner

 

Content review plan

Project development will be guided by a formal plan and mechanisms for content review so that both OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Extension scholarship expectations and Experiment Stations Communications protocols for review are met.  Content review will proceed based on the roles and responsibilities of project staff:

  1. Content writers and illustrators will be given appropriate, research-based sources of information to study and understand before creating content.
  2. Content owners will oversee reviews of drafts and final content for factual accuracy.
  3. Project coordinator or manager will perform high-level editing to ensure that content meets overall communications goals and messages.
  4. Copy editor will review materials for typos, grammar, and consistency of tone, voice, tense, writing style and AP style (terminology, acronyms, etc.).
  5. Website technology manager will post content on the website and verify that content is correct in terms of titles, chunks of content, taxonomy, tags, metadata, breadcrumbs and other backend tasks.

Cost per page

There are two models for individual content development for this comprehensive resource depending on interest of OSU faculty and Staff taking on the task of doing the content writing.

For novel content that OSU faculty and Staff want to write, here are projected costs per page:

Cost calculator per page Hours Hourly Cost / pg. Notes
Content owner
Find content information sources 1 75  $      75.00 Provide references, priorities, text, visual content
Write text 5 75  $    375.00 600-800 words in template
Retainer for future 2 75  $    150.00 Keep tabs on this content and provide changes in future
Content reviewers Assigned to OSU faculty and staff
Factual content review 2 75  $    150.00 Needs to meet scholarship criteria per CAS and EESC.
Coordinator
Coordination per page 3 75  $    225.00 Coordinate team communications and assemble content
Permissions 2 75  $    150.00 Find and attribute credit to content contributors
Post content and review 3 75  $    225.00 Nodes, bread crumbs, tags, etc.
Contracted services
Editing to achieve unified voice across site 2.257 60  $    135.42
Create visual content 4 60  $    240.00 2-4 line drawings or diagrams per content page
Copy editing 1 60  $      60.00 APA style
Total Cost English languages page 25.257  $1,785.42
Spanish language pages  $1,339.07 Estimated at 75% cost of English pages
Cost per content page  $3,124.49 In both English- and Spanish- language

For more routine pest cases for which there is already well-developed content to draw from to develop 600-800 word pages, we can hire a contracted writer to write the text, leaving the OSU content owner with 5 hours of time per content page.

Variable cost calculator for content development.

Content owners details

Income per page for content owners with writing

Cost calculator per page Hours Hourly wage Cost / pg. Notes
Find content sources 1 $75 $75 Provide references, priorities, text, visual content
Write text 5 75 $375 600-800 words in template
Retainer for future 2 $75 $150 Keep tabs on this pest and content and provide suggested changes for specific pages as needed
Total 8 $600 Per content page

Income per page for content owners without writing

Funding per page for content experts.
Funding per page for content experts.

The fundraising plan for this project includes funds for content owners as specified above.  Content owners, if the wish, can waive the income allocated for this service to make an in-kind contribution toward this project.

Timeline for content development

Year 1

During the first year of this project, we will primarily be focused on the initial build-out of the technology platform and making final plans for the content, particularly pesticide risk reduction information.  Develop 15 examples representing Drupal content types and areas of focus.

Years 2 and 3

Develop content in earnest.