Colorado Progressive

UPDATE: Rick Stoner writes in, and he offers a clarification and a different view of the Forest Service approach:

The Denver Post reporter took my words out of context. I was describing to him what people who have purchased ODC from AgriHouse have said about the forest service. However, I personally believe the USDA Forest Service and the Colorado State Forest Service has been very proactive in working to help bring this eco-friendly biopesticide forward. The USDA Forest Service sponsorship of ODC chitosan research in Pineville, Louisiana in 2008 has been paramount to making ODC a new tool in the integrated pest management toolkit to address the pine beetle epidemic.

See here and here for more on AgriHouse, ODC, and mountain pine beetles.

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There’s a good article in today’s Denver Post highlighting the work of AgriHouse president Rick Stoner and CSU microbiologist Jim Linden to put an end to the pine beetle devastation in Colorado. (I should disclose here that Rick Stoner is a friend of mine.) While the article really only glances at ODC (Organic Disease Control, AgriHouse’s answer to pine beetles and other pests, which is comprised of chitosan derived from the shells of crushed crustaceans), the Post does a good job of publicizing what’s not happening.

Despite positive results using ODC against pine beetles in USFS field tests, state and federal officials aren’t talking about using Stoner and Linden’s tree dope anytime soon in Colorado.

But nobody has moved toward wide application of chitosan for beetle control, Stoner said.

“What has the Forest Service done for us? They’ve just let the trees die,” Stoner said. “I’ve offered it up to government agencies to address the pine beetle epidemic. I just want somebody to start using it. We’ve got a huge problem.”

Federal decision-makers in Colorado could not be reached for comment.

“We’re not testing it here,” said agency spokesman Steve Segin. “We have our own researchers and scientists who need to vet this kind of stuff.”

Emphasis mine. The cold shoulder is a shame, really, because ODC works without toxins. That’s right. Stoner calls it a biopesticide and points out that it’s completely organic. In fact, I’ve seen him drink the stuff. What’s more, it’s highly concentrated and thus fairly cheap to apply at $1 or less per tree.

The beauty of ODC is that it works not by attacking the beetle, but by boosting the tree’s beetle response. Chitosan increases sap production in treated trees, and sap in turn encapsulates the beetle and prevents the insect from spreading the deadly blue fungus that actually snuffs life out of the tree.

Stoner and Linden have been getting a bit of positive press here in Denver recently, and that’s a good thing, because it seems Colorado is in line for $30 million in federal funding to fight the pine beetle. Here’s hoping some of that goes toward chitosan in the form of ODC.