SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has named the winners of the 2012 IPM Innovator Awards.

Among the recipients was Hearts Pest Management, based in San Diego, which provides pest management services to residential and commercial customers and other IPM-based solutions to all of its customers. The firm operates in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernandino counties.

The 2012 IPM Innovators also include

• Coalition for Urban/Rural Environmental Stewardship (CURES): Established in 1997, CURES is a nonprofit with the mission to create and deliver science-based solutions and education to ensure that tools to manage pests and grow plants are used in ways that protect people and the environment.
• Limoneira Company: Based in Ventura County, the company has a long history of IPM practices in the California citrus and avocado industries. Limoneira owns several area developments and has included landscape and structural IPM strategies in its plans for new developments in Santa Paula.
• University of California, San Francisco, California Childcare Health Program (CCHP): In 2007, CCHP in collaboration with UC Berkeley's Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, UC Statewide IPM Program, and child care providers and child care health consultants, received a grant from DPR to develop an IPM program for child care providers throughout the state. The group surveyed child care providers to establish current pest management practices and then developed an IPM Toolkit for Early Care and Education Programs in English and Spanish for the management of pests common in child care centers. 

“This year’s honorees are reducing pesticide use in agricultural areas and in child care centers and other public places in diverse ways that range from using less toxic alternatives to creating partnerships and developing educational materials,” said DPR Director Brian Leahy. “We applaud their commitment to using pest control practices to protect public health and the environment and willingness to share their practices with others.”