Project Safe Send, a pesticide collection program, is now underway. Project Safe Send is a safe, simple, and non-regulatory program to help farmers, ranchers, pesticide dealers and applicators, government agencies, and homeowners safely and legally dispose of unusable pesticides free of charge. Participants can bring their unusable pesticides to any scheduled collection site.

Project Safe Send accepts old, unusable, or banned pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, and fungicides. After the collection, pesticides are carefully packed and shipped out of state for incineration.

People with more than 1,000 pounds of pesticides should pre-register. No other pre-registration is required. A maximum of 20,000 pounds of pesticides per participant will be accepted. Pesticide rinse water also will be accepted. The first 100 pounds of rinse water will be taken free of charge; a fee will be applied for each additional pound.

To pre-register, obtain plastic bags or for more information, contact Jeremiah Lien at the North Dakota Department of Agriculture at (800) 242-7535 or jjlien@nd.gov.

The collections will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time at the North Dakota Department of Transportation facilities in the following cities:

July 11 – Minot, July 12 – Watford City, July 15 – Bowman, July 16 – Ashley, July 17 – Jamestown, July 18 – Cooperstown, July 19 – Wahpeton, July 23 – Adams, July 24 – Grand Forks, July 25 – Casselton

2013 Master Gardener Program Classes Set

I’m excited to be able to share with readers that the dates for the 2013 Master Gardener Program Classes have been set to begin September 27th and run through November 15th. To better accommodate participants’ busy schedules, this year’s program participants will be able to choose between a more traditional classroom offering at selected host sites via Interactive Video Network (IVN) or an online version allowing participants to view recorded lectures from the comfort of their homes on their own schedule. Classroom sessions will be held Fridays from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. beginning on September 27th. The classes will originate from NDSU and be broadcast across the state to IVN host sites. Sites to host the classroom sessions are still being finalized.

Registration for the program is set to open sometime in July. Continue to check for updates on the Master Gardener Program website at: www.ag.ndsu.edu/mastergardener.

Pierce County Coloring Contest Prizes

All Coloring Contest entrants are invited to the Pierce County Extension office to pick up their coloring pages and pick out a prize. This year the Fair Board decided to give each participant a prize as they found it difficult to select only one winner from each division.