René Fiechter has earned an Excellence in IPM award from the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program (NYS IPM) at Cornell University for his for nine years of focused leadership on the Bed Bug Task Force, his commitment to IPM and advocacy on the bed bug front.
Conversations with community leaders of the Village of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York revealed that bed bugs ranked high among issues that tenants often felt powerless to control. So, Fiechter lost no time in convening a sixty-member Bed Bug Task Force to help landlords and tenants better understand and manage this scourge. Task-force members included Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, community IPM coordinator for New York State Integrated Pest Management Program (NYS IPM) at Cornell University.
“René wasted no time in learning everything he could about bed bugs,” says Gangloff-Kaufmann. “He’s also just a thoughtful, friendly person. Those are attributes you need if you’re going to bring together such an array of tenants, landlords, pest professionals and community agencies, then make it work.”
“René is a shining example of how one person can serve and protect his community using IPM,” says Jim Skinner, president of A & C Pest Management. “Under his leadership over the years, the task force held public events that drew hundreds of people and promoted IPM as key to coping with this growing crisis.”
Fiechter received his award on March 24 at the annual meeting of the Community IPM Coordinating Council, held at Bethpage State Park on Long Island. Learn more here.
