Extension Update: July 2005 Archives

UNH Cooperative Extension Agricultural Resources educators were honored at the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) annual conference in Buffalo, New York, July 17- 22.

Tom Buob, Grafton County, received the Distinguished Service Award for 26 years of excellent Extension programming and service to the community.

Geoffrey Njue, Strafford County, received an Achievement Award in recognition of four and a half years excellence in Extension service educational programs. He also received communication awards for a fact sheet on using the Renaissance Red Poinsettia cut flower, and for a feature article on a Poinsettia variety trial, published in The Plantsman.

Dot Perkins, Merrimack County’s Extension Program Coordinator, was honored as one of three national finalists in the 4-H and Youth Recognition category for her work on the children's gardening curriculum Growing A Green Generation. Perkins took the original curriculum developed by horticulture students, revised it, added to it and tested it on both teachers and children at the UNH Child Study and Development Center (CSDC). The final curriculum represents collaboration among the UNH plant biology department, the CSDC and UNH Cooperative Extension.

Extension floriculture specialist Paul Fisher received a 2005 Blue Ribbon award for an education aid from the American Society of Agricultural Engineers for a book co-authored and edited with Erik Runkle, Extension specialist from Michigan State. The book, Lighten Up Profits, targets commercial growers, technical representatives and university students, covering topics such as the basic biology of how light affects growth, the latest lighting research, and technical and financial information to help guide investment decisions in lighting equipment.

Congratulations to the honorees.

Val Long will provide leadership for UNH Cooperative Extension's obesity action initiative Lighten Up NH! starting in September. UNH Cooperative Extension's State Advisory Council requested that obesity prevention be a major focus in our five-year plan of work. This past April, the Council voted to support these programs by making them clearer and more evident in the plan of work regardless of client income level and to continue and enhance the resources dedicated to this critical issue.

Val's leadership will give UNH Cooperative Extension the capacity to write and submit proposals to attract funding to target this major area of need. Colette Janson Sand will co-chair the Lighten Up NH! team and contribute significant technical support and subject matter expertise. Colette is also a liaison to the Healthy Lifestyles Team.

A series of informal outdoor conservation workshops by UNH Cooperative Extension’s Community Conservation Assistance Program attracted a diverse group of interested participants the past two summers.

Phil Auger and Frank Mitchell organized the workshops. This year, attendance is up from 2004, with participants traveling from throughout New Hampshire and in some cases, interest exceeding capacity for some workshops.

In addition to Auger and Mitchell, who also provide some of the workshops, the series relies on other Extension staff, including Darrell Covell, Matt Tarr and Alan Eaton, as well as representatives of partner groups, the Center for Land Conservation Assistance/Society for the Protection of NH Forests, Nature Conservancy, NH Division of Parks’ Trails Bureau, Rockingham Land Trust, NH Natural Heritage Bureau, NH Office of Energy and Planning and private natural resources professionals.

The 2005 series consists of six conservation workshops. Attendees learn about:
• conservation easement management,
• conducting biological inventories,
• identifying conservation values on properties,
• forest management on conservation lands,
• managing public use of conservation lands,
• forest ecology and,
• interpreting land use history.

A highlight of this summer’s workshop series is a session in the UNH College Woods by Tom Wessels, a professor at Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene and author of the popular book, Reading the Forested Landscape. The Adelard A. and Valeda Lea Roy Foundation provided financial support for the Conservation Workshop Series.

For more information on the Summer Conservation Workshop Series, contact Frank Mitchell at Frank.Mitchell@unh.edu or 862-1067, or Phil Auger at Phil.Auger@unh.edu or 679-5616.

Congratulations to the following Extension Educators who were approved for promotion at a recent meeting of the USNH Board of Trustees:

Full Extension Educator
Julia Steed Mawson
Lawrence Barker
Nada Haddad
Charlotte Cross

Associate Extension Educator
Gail Kennedy
Darrel Covell

For those who wish to post to our website, a Web Request Protocol document is now available to guide you.

Please read the document carefully and refer to it when you are submitting a web request form. You may also call our Computer Hotseat at 862-0351 or the WWW & Media Specialist at 862-4579 if you have further questions.

Please join me in welcoming Linda Willard as the new Extension Educational Program Coordinator,
4-H Youth Development for Strafford County.

Linda served in an interim role for the past year with the 4-H Youth Development program in Strafford County. She started several new 4-H clubs, worked with the Operation Military Kids project and held successful pie and silent auctions at the Rochester Fair. Through her active work with the media, the 4-H Youth Development Program in Strafford County has been well publicized in Foster's Daily Democrat.

Prior to working with UNH Cooperative Extension, Linda was a licensing analyst with Liberty Mutual and a teacher's aide with Barrington Elementary School. Linda previously worked with the California State Fair, a 21-day event hosting more than a million people.

We look forward to Linda's dedication to youth and support of volunteers in her role in Strafford County.

Traditional animal science projects are the most familiar part of 4-H to most people. Even people raised in urban areas often seek out the 4-H barns at the local county fair to see the animals and ask questions of the youth who exhibit them. 4-H youth development has changed a lot over the years, but the interest in animal science remains strong and youth learn about responsibility, sportsmanship and teamwork while they gain important skills in agriculture and animal care including animal selection. Here are some of the animal science experiences open to 4-H youth in New Hampshire.

UNH Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program holds an annual dairy judging and horse judging contest. Youth participants view several “classes” (consisting of four animals) and judge the animals based on confirmation and breed standards. For horses, they also look at their performance in riding classes. In addition to a written critique of how they place the class, youth gain important communication skills because they speak from memory to the judge for two minutes about the decisions they made regarding the animals.

In March, 75 youth and volunteers attended a dairy judging clinic where they learned about dairy cattle selection from Drs. Tom Fairchild and Drew Conroy from UNH’s Animal and Nutritional Sciences Department. The clinic featured instruction and demonstration on anatomy, confirmation and breed character as well as the opportunity to practice oral reasons.

In April, 29 youth participated in a horse judging contest held in Carroll County. They visited two farms and judged six classes of horses. In addition to official adult judges, recent alumni of the horse judging program served as co-officials.

Forty youth took part in a two-day dairy judging contest in May at four farms in Connecticut and New York to judge some of the best dairy cattle in the region. Youth judged several breeds of dairy cattle and delivered oral reasons to an official judge.

At these events, youth work towards representing New Hampshire 4-H in national judging contests. This year four youth and a coach will participate in the National 4-H Dairy Judging Contest held in Madison, Wisconsin in September and four youth and a coach will attend the Eastern National 4-H Horse Roundup in Louisville, Kentucky in November.

UNH Cooperative Extension's Fiscal Year 2004 Annual Report of Accomplishments and Results to CSREES was accepted with no required improvements for next year. The review team of National Program Leaders made the following commendations and suggested recommendations for next year's report:
1) the report is nicely formatted,
2) there are excellent examples across the USDA goals for a nicely balanced portfolio,
3) the use of the logic model strengthens outcome and impact statements,
4) the ability to continue to conduct a broad array of quality programs given the number of staff who have retired or separated and the number of positions that have remained vacant for long periods of time,
5) the need to continue strengthening impact statements by including methods used to support conclusions,
6) the need to be more clear to what extent under-served and under-represented audiences and youth are intentionally sought for input in program planning,
7) there is a wide range of long-term and collaborative multi-state efforts but more data is needed on the impact of these efforts,
8) there are some targeted and successful approaches to reaching under-served and under-represented audiences but more are needed in agriculture and natural resources programs,
9) good progress was made over the past two years in formulating logic models to frame program areas and articulate expected outcomes that strengthens outcome and impact statements,
10) include a more descriptive overview of research/Extension projects on how faculty and staff contribute to Extension outreach programs and how Extension programs specifically inform the research agenda and
11) include more background information and statistical data on New Hampshire issues as compared to the national picture.

Thanks to everyone for your outstanding programming and reporting efforts that made this report successful. A special thank you to staff who reported on the key themes that helped shape this report.