Extension Update: March 2006 Archives

The Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC) is a collaborative program involving 12 organizations, coordinated by UNH Cooperative Extension. Its purpose is to support communities facing rapid growth by helping them understand the status of their natural resources, the potential impacts of growth on those resources, and techniques for natural resources-based management and protection. NROC, which began in 1999, has served 15 communities through 2005.

The NROC team delivers a customized educational presentation to communities called Dealing with Growth, followed by long-term assistance developing and implementing an action plan for protecting natural resources. NROC also offers a choice of educational workshops and referral to sources of financial and other assistance. NROC tailors the program to communities’ specific needs and typically works with community members for 6-12 months.

In 2005, the New Hampshire Coastal Program, a financial sponsor of NROC, commissioned the Institute for New Hampshire Studies (INHS) at Plymouth State University to conduct an independent study of NROC’s effectiveness. The INHS used a literature review, program content analysis, interviews with NROC staff and a survey of NROC clientele to obtain its findings.

The conclusions indicate NROC is effective in:
• recruiting, mobilizing and maintaining involvement of citizens in their communities
• increasing the capacity of citizens to protect their communities’ natural resources
• providing assistance and education in a cost-effective manner.

The INHS study cited the following as strengths of NROC:
• NROC’s role as a facilitator: “It provides resources and support, and prods a community to meet and stay effective during meetings, while staying on schedule.”
• NROC’s function as an “umbrella organization providing one source shopping with customization of programs, bringing together disparate resources, with a unified message, and a coordinated effort.”
• NROC’s “considerable expertise and commitment that matches well with the structure of community-defined goals.”
• The NROC coordinating process, which “enhances communication within communities.”
• “Community and personal empowerment are outcomes” in NROC programs.

For more information on the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition or the INHS study, contact NROC Coordinator Amanda Stone at 364-5324 or Amanda.Stone@unh.edu

David Foote, UNH Cooperative Extension's Director of Computer Information Technology & Distance Education, is the recipient of the 2006 Information Technology Special Interest Group Award of Excellence from the Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE).

The Award of Excellence recognizes individuals who have demonstrated excellence in the Special Interest Group area, as well as leadership and involvement in ACE. ACE members are writers, editors, photographers, graphic designers, videographers, electronic media producers, marketing and public relations practitioners, researchers, Web developers, database programmers, distance education specialists, educators and managers. They work in universities, government agencies and research organizations in the public sector, as well as companies and firms in the private sector. Congratulations, David!

This year's statewide conference will provide opportunities to gain new knowledge, improve skills and socialize with colleagues. The theme is "Wild About Teamwork."

The date is May 25 at the Memorial Union Building on the UNH campus. All staff are invited to participate in this professional development conference and your attendance is expected.

Online registration should open around the first of May, which will provide a variety of workshops from which to choose. Working hard on the event is this year's Conference Planning Committee, which includes Charlene Baxter, chair, Faye Cragin, Paula Gregory, Gillian Hodges Rapp, Thom Linehan, Ken La Valley, Deb Russell, Sadie Puglisi, Sarah Smith and Holly Young.

UNH President Ann Weaver Hart, in her State of the University Address last fall, announced the allocation of $400,000 from her President’s Fund for Excellence to a competitive and strategic program to initiate and sustain research and scholarship by UNH faculty. It resulted in 17 awards to faculty in all five colleges, EOS and Cooperative Extension. By adding nearly $300,000 from an unanticipated increase in indirect cost recovery and spreading spending over two fiscal years, the total amount awarded increased to about $700,000.

Two UNH Cooperative Extension specialists, Paula Gregory, 4-H Youth Development, and Emily Douglas, Family Education and Policy, recently received notification that proposals they are involved with received funding.

Paula is involved in a collaborative proposal submitted by Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy Barbara White funded at $64,850. The proposal focus is on infants born to mothers under chronic stress. Paula’s role is to assist White’s graduate students in making the community connections to recruit the pregnant teens and to consult with these students on community agency collaboration.

Emily, who submitted the proposal with Dr. Nina Glick Schiller, professor of anthropology, received a $55,654 award for the proposal, “Refugee Resettlement in New Hampshire: A Study of Refugee Well-being.”

One of the primary goals of the President's Excellence Initiative has been to build sustainable teams and launch new areas of research and scholarship that will have a lasting impact on the University. Congratulations, Paula and Emily!

For New Hampshire's specialty food businesses, the challenges of establishing and expanding sales to retail markets can seem daunting. What retail options are there? Who do I contact? What are the hallmarks of a successful product and how do I interest buyers?

On Saturday, March 11, 31 food entrepreneurs - from start-ups to well-established businesses - participated in the NH Grown or Made - How to Sell Your food Product in Local Retail Stores workshop in Concord. Co-sponsored by UNH Cooperative Extension and Hannah Grimes Marketplace in Keene, the goal was to link food entrepreneurs with owners, managers and buyers from a variety of retail outlets as well as other food entrepreneurs who successfully sell their products in retail stores.

The workshop session was divided into two panel discussions. The first panel was comprised of retailers, including Beth Butler from Hannah Grimes Marketplace, Ken Close from Zeb's General Store in North Conway, Chuck Cressy from the Durham Marketplace and the local produce buyer, Kate Spugnardi, and Doug Baker from Hannaford Brothers in Maine. These retailers offered practical "how-to" advice on selling products to retail stores.

The second panel featured food entrepreneurs who successfully sell their products in retails outlets. Members of this panel included Harvey Clark from Mondi Enterprises, Lois Ford from Bellows House Bakery in Walpole, Mary MacNamara from MacNamara's Dairy in Plainfield, and Dana Mullet from Harvest Thyme Herbs in Dublin.

A discussion of what works and what doesn't, along with everything in-between, followed each session. All participants completing the post-workshop evaluation said they planned to pursue placing their products in retail outlets as a result.

One participant commented, "Yes, it was great to gain so much information in one morning and to hear directly from both producers and retailers." Another important outcome was the opportunity for food entrepreneurs and retailers to network.

The NH Grown or Made workshop planning committee members included Ann Hamilton, Nancy Bradford-Sisson, Alice Mullen and Catherine Violette from UNH Cooperative Extension and Mary Ann Kristiansen from Hannah Grimes Marketplace. For more information, contact Catherine Violette at catherine.violette@unh.edu

The Presidential Commissions at UNH are currently seeking nominations for membership for the 2006 - 2007 academic year for the Commission on the Status of People of Color, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the Commission on the Status of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Issues.

The Commissions report to the President of the University. They work to create equal educational and employment opportunities for everyone in our community through policy, advocacy and education.

Each Commission meets on a monthly basis. Please nominate colleagues, staff members and students for this excellent opportunity for voice and leadership. Send nominations and/or questions to Sylvia Foster at sfoster@unh.edu or call 862-1058 by April 3.

A policy brief on displaced workers - the people losing their jobs for good - in rural America, will be published this week by the Carsey Institute. The brief, titled "Low Skill Workers in Rural America Face Permanent Job Loss," has implications for current national policy discussions on trade and globalization.

Written by Carsey visiting faculty and Penn State geographer Amy Glasmeier and Carsey's own Priscilla Salant, this paper is second in a series of policy briefs on rural America funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Find out who is being displaced and why particular attention should be placed on rural workers in the Northeast and South by downloading the brief.

UNH Cooperative Extension's FY05 Annual Report, including Key Theme impact reports, was submitted last week as required to CSREES (Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service).

The document is posted on our web page.

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

This is the time to recognize colleagues for their dedication, commitment and caring behavior as staff members of UNH Cooperative Extension. The Staff Recognition Team added a new award for 2006, the Diversity and Pluralism award and voted to keep the two awards established last year, Performance Beyond Expectations and Professional Courtesy.

All staff in the organization, including county support staff, are eligible for these awards with nominations due Friday, March 31. The forms are quick and easy to fill out. This is an opportunity to formally make a difference and recognize those individuals who truly do make a difference in our organization. Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Foreign invaders have been relocating to the Gulf of Maine for decades, but now Extension Specialist Mark Wiley and other Sea Grant Extension educators from around New England are recruiting recreational divers to help keep them out.

Marine invasive species can wreak havoc on existing communities in the Gulf of Maine, but often they become firmly established before anyone knows they’ve arrived. “We would like to train recreational divers to recognize some of the more problematic species and let us know where they see them when they are out diving.” Mark says.

Mark and other Sea Grant Extension educators have a two-year grant from NOAA to develop the training program and share the results with agencies responsible for monitoring and controlling invasives.

“There is a hardy core of recreational divers who love New England’s cold waters that we would like to tap to help us,” he says. Divers would receive training in what some of the more problematic species look like, where to look for them, and how to differentiate them from native species.

Divers who spot invasives will need to document which species they found, and where, through an on-line data collection process. Divers interested in participating should contact Mark at (603) 749-156 or through email at mark.wiley@unh.edu.