Pest Expert Comes to Napa Extension
New advisor is versed in vine mealybug and grapevine leafroll virus
Monica Cooper (above) starts work as Napa County's UC viticulture farm advisor April 1.Napa, Calif. -- The Napa County Cooperative Extension office announced the appointment of Monica Cooper as the new viticulture farm advisor. She succeeds Mike Anderson, who has served as interim advisor since the untimely death of Ed Weber in January 2008.
Cooper seems eminently suited to deal with Napa Valley's primary viticultural challenges. She is an expert in vine mealybug and grapevine leafroll virus, two of the valley's biggest pest concerns at present. The last big worry -- Pierce's disease -- appears under control due to careful quarantine and its vector's apparent sensitivity to cold winters.
Cooper, who holds a doctorate in plant medicine, comes to the Napa County extension office from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a staff research associate/ITT supervisor.
While at UC Berkeley, she managed a research laboratory in the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management, coordinating personnel and activities for projects including Argentine ant, vine mealybug, olive fruit fly biological control, Eucalyptus psyllid pests and grapevine leafroll.
She earned a bachelors degree in biology from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., in 1996, then served as a Peace Corps volunteer in an agrarian community in Panama from 1997-99.
Upon returning to the United States, Cooper entered the University of Florida, where she earned her Doctor of Plant Medicine degree in 2006. During that program she followed a rigorous course in entomology, plant pathology, weed and soil science, agronomy and horticulture.
As staff research associate at UC Berkeley, she worked on the development and evaluation of integrated pest management programs for arthropod pests in grapes, apples and olives.
Her other major focus had been the ongoing study of sustainable mealybug and Argentine ant controls in vineyards, where she organized research and demonstration plots to study the combined effect of management tools, such as biological control, mating disruption, and bait and insecticide applications on mealybug populations.
Cooper has authored many publications and articles related to Argentine ant and vine mealybug management, and she has given numerous presentations on both subjects throughout California. She has been active in the Carneros Growers' Vine Mealybug Workgroup since 2006 and a member of the Entomological Society of America since 2002. She says she has been working in vineyards for the last five years, spending much of that time in Napa.
As Napa County UC viticulture farm advisor, Cooper anticipates continuing her work on vineyard mealybugs and addressing the industry's additional needs. She envisions working not only with pest, disease and fertility problems, but she'll also tackle water, land and other looming resource issues. Because of Napa's important viticultural status, she will likely have a highly visible presence, as Ed Weber did.
She starts work in Napa County on April 1.