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Palmer honored for 4-poster project

REPORTER FILE PHOTO | Vincent Palmer, a state DEC pesticide specialist who coordinated the town’s 4-poster study, addresses a Town Board work session called to address a petition drive against the 4-poster program initiated by resident Richard Kelly.

Vincent A. Palmer, the state environmental official who was instrumental in clearing the way for the Shelter Island 4-poster pilot program, received the 2011 Cornell Cooperative Extension Outstanding Cooperator award last month in recognition of work on the New York State 4-poster Tick Management Technology Study. The award was presented on November 16 at Suffolk County Community College’s eastern campus in Riverhead.

Mr. Palmer is special assistant to the commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

“It is gratifying to see Vincent Palmer recognized by Cornell Cooperative Extension,” DEC Region One Regional Director Peter A. Scully said. “This award recognizes his outstanding leadership, during difficult economic times, which saw this important study through to completion despite numerous obstacles. This study developed data that will help DEC determine if this tick control device can be used safely on Long Island in a matter that protects humans from tick-borne diseases.”

“The approximately $1.4 million study would not have been completed but for the financial support Vincent Palmer helped procure, the many community meetings he attended providing detailed technical and factual information and his authoritative and responsive representation of the department that gave the communities confidence to continue in their support of the work,” said Dale Moyer, associate executive director for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County.

“His dedication to openness was exemplary among public servants,” added Mr. Moyer, “and helped all involved to understand the basis for decisions that were made over the course of the study. We recognized Vincent Palmer for his exceptional support of and assistance to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County and the communities of Shelter Island, Fire Island and North Haven in facilitating the 4-poster Deer and Tick Study.”

North Haven was used as a control for the study, which saw 60 4-poster units deployed on Shelter Island and eight on Fire Island. The devices apply permethrin to the heads and necks of deer as they feed on corn.

In April 2011, the DEC announced the findings of the 2007-2011 4-poster Tick Management Technology Study, which was presented in a final report prepared by Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County.

The study was designed to examine the effects on wildlife and human health of deploying 4-posters, devices that control blacklegged (deer) ticks and lone star ticks that feed on white-tailed deer. The five-year study cost $1.4 million and involved a consortium of federal, state and local agencies, academia and private interests.

DEC wildlife biologists and pesticide specialists are now studying the report, and will use their findings to determine the appropriate course of action relative to subsequent use of this technology. The 4-poster is currently not authorized for regular use in New York State. Use of the device in New York would require DEC authorization for both the professional use of the devices and for the use of bait to attract deer.

According to the New York State Department of Health (DOH), permethrin is widely used as an insecticide on numerous crops, livestock and livestock housing, buildings, indoor and outdoor residential spaces, on pets, and for community-based mosquito control. Hundreds of homeowners on Shelter Island have their yards sprayed with a permethrin solution to kill ticks.

As indicated in the final New York State report, researchers observed that tick levels in 4-poster treatment sites significantly declined compared with the control site from 2008 to 2009, and in most cases from 2008 to 2010. A number of other studies outside of New York State have shown reductions in tick populations at all stages of development, measuring greater than 90 percent and as much as 100 percent. Results from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Northeast Area-Wide Tick Control Project, which did involve a New York State treatment site, demonstrated the effectiveness of 4-poster technology with efficacies against nymphal blacklegged and lone star ticks ranging from 60.0 to 81.7 and 90.9 to 99.5 percent, respectively.

Mr. Palmer has worked for the DEC since 1978 and has managed DEC’s Nassau and Suffolk pesticide control program since 1981. He authored regulations regarding the use of termite control pesticides, prepared the West Nile virus regulatory response manual and is currently directing the development of the Draft Long Island Pesticide Use Management Plan.

The overall goal of the Draft Pesticide Use Management Plan, according to the DEC, is to prevent adverse effects to human health and the environment by protecting Long Island’s groundwater resources from pesticide contamination while continuing to meet agricultural, residential, commercial, industrial and institutional pest management needs.