National Forum on Biological Control

Discover the Power of Biocontrol: Successes and Challenges from the Past, Present, and Future

April 6 – 8, 2027

Renaissance Asheville Downtown Hotel | Asheville, North Carolina

Call for Oral Presentation and Poster Abstracts

Abstracts for the conference are due October 31st, 2026

The USDA Forest Service is leading the 3rd National Forum on Biological Control in partnership with the National Association of State Foresters, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the DOI Bureau of Land Management, and the University of Florida. Covering both weed and arthropod biocontrol, this conference brings together practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and colleagues from related disciplines to address the shared challenges (e.g., communication, capacity, and changing landscapes) and the opportunities that exist in this field.

The goal of this conference is to build relationships and synergy among leaders in the biocontrol community and to propel this important discipline forward by identifying its key strengths, challenges, opportunities, and future directions. To foster thoughtful discussion, networking, and collaboration, there will be no concurrent sessions—every presentation takes place in the same room.

Each day of the conference centers on one of three main themes:

Past Lessons and Successes
Present Projects and Challenges
Future Innovations to Move Biocontrol Forward

Within each theme, sessions explore biocontrol research, management, partnerships, and economic and landscape impacts. Need some inspiration for your abstract? Explore the Suggested Topics List for examples. We invite anyone interested in giving an oral or poster presentation to submit an abstract by the October 31 deadline. To ensure a common thread exists between the presentations throughout the conference, we’d like abstracts and presentations to center around:

The power of biocontrol: successes and challenges from the past, present, and future

Please submit your oral and/or poster abstracts and biographical sketches below by October 31, 2026. Guidelines for abstracts and biographical sketches can be downloaded here. The program committee will review and approve abstracts. Acceptance will be based on relevance to biological control and topic areas, session space availability, and receipt of the abstract by the deadline.

Abstract Submission

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Presentation Type(Required)

Theme(Required)

Session(Required)

Presentation Title(Required)

Submit the title exactly as it will appear in the program. Only the first word and proper nouns should be capitalized.

Presentation Abstract(Required)

250 words max. Authors should carefully edit their abstracts before submission; the conference will not be responsible for editing content.

Presenter Name(Required)

Type your name exactly as it will appear in the program, writing out your first and last/family name and including any relevant abbreviations.

First Last

Presenter Affiliation(Required)

Type your agency/organization affiliation without acronyms. However, acronyms should be used for federal executive departments.

Presenter Email(Required)

Do you have additional authors to include in your submission?(Required)

Yes

Additional Authors(Required)

Type additional author names exactly as they will appear in the program, writing out first and last/family names and including any relevant abbreviations. Click the (+) at the end of the entry for each additional author.

Additional Author Name

Affiliation

Speaker Bio(Required)

150 words max. Briefly outline the presenter’s expertise relative to the presentation.

Notes

Please include any additional information here. If the presenter is not the lead author of the abstract, please identify the lead author here.