OvoControl® wins the Natural Resources Category Denver, CO — Governor Bill Ritter presented the 2009 CO-LABS Governor’s Awards for Research Impact this week to five scientists from Colorado federal research laboratories. The USDA National Wildlife Center in Fort Collins, CO received the prestigious Governor’s award in the category of Natural Resources for their development of OvoControl, the new contraceptive for birds.  The four other categories included, Climate Science, Information Technology, Renewable Energy and Public Health. Beginning in 1998, scientists at the National Wildlife Research Center, in collaboration with Innolytics developed OvoControl, an oral contraceptive that reduces egg production and viability.  Initially developed for resident Canada geese, OvoControl is fed to birds during their breeding season.  The effects are temporary, and it does not harm the birds, other animals, or people.  The Center carried out trials over seven years to develop standards for the contraceptive’s use and test its effects on the environment.  OvoControl has been used successfully in more than 25 US communities to humanely manage goose, duck, and pigeon populations.The five 2009 Governor’s Awards recipients included:Community Climate System Model

National Center for Atmospheric Research

Peter Gent, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

NIST Internet Time Service

JILA and National Institute of Standards and Technology

Judah Levine, PhD, Developer

 Thin Film Solar Cells

National Center for Photovoltaics

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Inhaled Aerosol Vaccines

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science

Robert E. Sievers, PhD, Principal Investigator

Oral Contraceptive for Wildlife

USDA National Wildlife Research Center

Kathleen Fagerstone, Ph.D., Manager, Invasive Species and Technology

Lowell Miller, Ph.D., Reproductive Physiologist

The labs represented are the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder; the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder; JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden; the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU-Boulder, a joint institute with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) in Fort Collins.