University of British Columbia
OP-9: Integrated Pest Management

As per UBC Policy No.12 Pest Control, pests will be controlled whenever possible through integrated pest management, a combination or cultural and biological techniques, and selective chemical methods only if necessary.

The IPM plan follows a four tiered approach of:
1) Setting thresholds to identify the point at which action must be taken;
2) Monitoring and identifying pests to select the most appropriate control decision and the least noxious method necessary;
3) Prevention to actively manage the problem to prevent pests from becoming a problem (e.g.: active cleaning of catch basins to decrease the risk of West Nile Virus and also working in conjunction with the MOE to activate a plan if necessary); and finally
4) Control if deemed necessary by weighting the effectiveness and risk of the method chosen with the method carrying less risk and most effectiveness chosen first.

UBC Municipal Landscape Services has followed the lead of the City of Vancouver, and has attempted to suspend the use of all chemical pesticides for "cosmetic" use. This means that no herbicides, insecticides of fungicides are currently used by our landscape maintenance group on the majority of campus landscapes unless there are extenuating circumstances (i.e. public health issue (e.g. West Nile Virus), invasive plants that threaten native woodland or agriculture, or when the preservation of rare, or heritage landscape elements is critical). The UBC Rose Garden is currently the only instance where a target pesticide is still used on a regular basis. UBC Rose Garden receives applications of fungicide on a semi-regular basis. Unfortunately, the current collection of rose species preserved in this garden would not endure without a regular, preventative treatment of fungicide.

A current SEEDS project (http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/campus-sustainability/battling-weeds-0) is in progress in both laboratory and field testing settings with regard to the effectiveness of organic herbicides on the most common campus weeds morning glory, horsetail and Canadian thistle. This collaborative project has revealed synergistic properties between organic herbicides, specific weed species susceptibilities and the application methodologies and will continue to reveal where further improvements with regard to product type and application can be utilized.

The total legal boundary of the UBC Vancouver campus encloses 994 acres. The gross total area serviced by Building Operations landscape crews - including building footprints, roads, paths, athletics and Student Housing is approximately 504 acres. Green-space only within the above serviced by Building Operations landscape crews is approximately 288 acres.