Program Progress and Strategic Planning Discussed in NCPN Cooperators Meeting

The WERA-20 Meeting was hosted in Raleigh, North Carolina September 8-10, 2025. This annual meeting focuses on Management of Diseases Caused by Systemic Pathogens in Temperate and Sub-Tropical Fruit Crops and Woody Ornamentals. WERA-20 participants include several National Clean Plant Network members, and this year the meeting featured a special full-day session focused on the Network as a whole. The goal of this NCPN Cooperators session was to feature the progress and technical advances of the NCPN over the program history, and to discuss cross-network initiatives and future strategies to sustain it into the future.

The session included highlights of advances over the last several years in Clean Plant Center operations, diagnostic technologies, and therapeutics as well as accomplishments in cross-network initiatives for outreach, quality, economic analysis, and data management.  The final session focused on a review of national and crop group strategic planning efforts, and a group discussion of potential areas of focus for the next few years. As the current national NCPN 2021-2025 Strategic Plan is reaching the end of its original planning period, this was an opportunity to review how the network has made progress in its goals, and set the stage to review and refresh the Plan over the coming year. All presentations are archived and available to the NCPN community on the NCPN website at the NCPN Newsletter site.

Session Presentations:

Progress in the National Clean Plant Network Program – Jennifer Nicholson, USDA-APHIS

NCPN Advances at Foundation Plant Services – Maher Al Rwahnih, University of California, Davis

Advances in Clean Citrus – Georgios Vidalakis, University of California, Riverside

Three years in: Building a fully functional Arkansas Center – Ioannis Tzanetakis, University of Arkansas

Update from the Oregon Clean Plant Center – Cristian Olaya, Oregon State University

NCPN Economic Working Group Studies – Kristen Park, Cornell University

NCPN Quality: A Forum for Exchange on Best Practices – Irene Lavagi-Craddock and Fatima Osman, University of California, Riverside and Davis

NCPN ADAPT Core – Karl Krist, University of California, Davis

Overview of NCPN Strategic Planning efforts, challenges and opportunities – Jennifer Nicholson