If you know which specialist or staff member you would like to reach, their contact information is provided below. If, however, you are unsure whom to contact, please use the inquiry form to the right and the appropriate team member will respond to your request.

Terry Bates

Director, Cornell Lake Erie Research & Extension

CLEREL
6592 West Main Road
Portland, NY, 14769

phone 716-792-2800 x207
fax 716-792-2805
email Terry

Tim Weigle

Team Leader, Statewide Grape IPM Specialist

CLEREL
6592 West Main Road
Portland, NY 14769

phone 716-792-2800 x203
fax 716-792-2805
email Tim

Peter Landre

Regional Ag Team Leader, Cornell University
email Peter

Kevin Martin

Extension Educator, Business Management

CLEREL
6592 West Main Road
Portland, NY 14769

phone 716-792-2800 x205
fax 716-792-2805
email Kevin

Andy Muza

Extension Educator

Penn State Ext., Erie Co, PA.
850 East Gore Road
Erie, PA 16509-3798

phone 814-825-0900
fax 814-825-4783
email Andy

Scott Ebert

Temporary Service Tech

CLEREL
6592 West Main Rd
Portland

phone 716-792-2800 ext 208
email Scott

Kim Knappenberger

Program Aid II

CLEREL
6592 West Main Rd
Portland

phone 716-792-2800
email Kim

Jackie Dresser

Research Technician

CLEREL
6592 West Main Rd
Portland, NY 14769

phone 716-792-2800
email Jackie

Rhiann Jakubowski

Program Assistant - GIS

CLEREL
6592 West Main Road
Portland, NY 14769

phone 716-792-2800 x206
fax 716-792-2805
email Rhiann

Andy Joy

Field Tech III

CLEREL
6592 West Main Rd
Portland

phone 716-792-2800
email Andy

Paula Joy

Field Assistant I

CLEREL
6592 West Main Road
Portland, NY, 14769

fax 716-792-2805
email Paula

Madonna Martin

Field Assistant I

CLEREL
6592 West Main Road
Portland, NY, 14769

fax 716-792-2805
email Madonna

Daniel Sprague Jr.

Field Coordinator

CLEREL
6592 West Main Rd
Portland, NY 14769

phone 716-792-2800
email Daniel

Ted Taft

CLEREL, Research Support Specialist I

CLEREL
6592 West Main Road
Portland, NY, 14769

phone 716-792-2800 x 212
fax 716-792-2805
email Ted

Kate Robinson

Administrative Assistant

CLEREL
6592 W. Main Rd.
Portland, NY 14769

phone 716-792-2800 x202
fax 716-792-2805
email Kate

Tim Weigle receives Excellence in IPM award

Portland, NY. August 11, 2017: As a kid, Tim Weigle often tagged along with his dad, a plant breeder at Iowa State University. It gave him a taste for agriculture and research. But once in college he took an entomology class and everything changed. That class included an introduction to integrated pest management (IPM).
“I was fascinated by the interaction of plant systems and pest complexes,” Weigle says. So he added IPM to his bachelor’s program, then topped it off with a master’s in horticulture. “It gave me the solid foundation in crop production I needed to practice IPM,” he says.
Now, for nearly 30 years of innovative, farmer-focused IPM research and outreach in the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program (LERGP), Tim Weigle has earned an Excellence in IPM award from the New York State IPM Program (NYS IPM).
Examples? Weigle helped build a dense concentration of grower-owned weather stations linked together online through NEWA" the Network for Environment and Weather Applications" to predict when to scout for destructive grape berry moths and a hit list of other pests. And he’s applied LERGP research to use tractor-mounted sensors, each with a chip providing data for creating color-coded maps. These maps pinpoint where destructive grape rootworms are probably at work underground.
“This means you can check just those spots for grape rootworm and spot-treat only them,” Weigle says.”
Then there’s Weigle’s leadership on the Organic Guide for Grapes and the Pest Management Guidelines for both grape and hops. He’s also been a trailblazer in IPM research and outreach for the hopyards that help fuel New York’s microbreweries.
But it’s his way with people that really sets Tim Weigle apart. Sure, the internet has a lot to offer. But nobody wants a faceless Extension. Weigle created weekly “coffee pot meetings,” held at vineyards all along Lake Erie’s grape belt. Indeed, they’re what “face time” is all about. They don’t even have an agenda. Instead, they’re driven by what’s got farmers curious or worried that week.
“Some of those early coffee pot meetings were at our vineyard, back when our son was just a little kid,” says Dawn Betts of Betts Farms LLC. “I remember one time we’d all gone out to the vineyard, and Tim was talking about grape berry moths. Well, our son went down the row and picked some of the stung berries where the moths had laid their eggs. And Tim said ‘if this young man can do it, you can too.’”
The Betts family goes to a lot of those meetings. “We learn from each other,” Betts says. “If one of us has an issue, chances are the others will soon.”
“Tim does a fabulous job of incorporating the fundamentals of biology while bringing the latest science to address growers’ challenges,” says Jennifer Grant, director of NYS IPM. “We’re proud to have him on our NYS IPM team.”
Weigle received his award at the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program’s Summer Conference on August 11, 2017. Learn more about IPM at nysipm.cornell.edu.