For more than a decade an increasing number of California farmers have been turning to integrated pest management, an environmentally sensitive approach to controlling insects, weeds, diseases and other plant problems. Now, landscape professionals in California's urban environs are following suit in the development of comprehensive integrated pest management programs. On Feb. 11 in San Francisco, Bay Area pest-control professionals will learn the latest integrated pest management techniques for urban landscapes, during a seminar sponsored by the UC Davis-based Statewide Integrated Pest Management Project. It will run from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Strybing Arboretum in the County Fair Building. UC scientists and industry professionals will show participants how to identify problems in the context of landscape ecosystems and teach them monitoring, sampling and diagnostic techniques, as well as discuss beneficial insects, diseases, soil and water. "The urban landscape professional can expect to get a good idea of where to start with an integrated pest management program, which significant factors to consider and how to put it all together," says Pat Marer, a pesticide training coordinator at UC Davis.