Extension Update: December 2008 Archives
I extend very best wishes to all members of the UNH Cooperative Extension family for a wonderful holiday season. Your service to the citizens of New Hampshire is important and commendable, and I want to thank you for your dedication, commitment and many contributions you’ve made this past year. I hope each of you take full advantage of the holidays to take a well-deserved break and enjoy your friends and family.
As we head into a New Year, the fiscal difficulties currently facing the state will likely create challenges for us as well, but we will face such challenges rationally and thoughtfully. We currently have a budget committee in place to review and make recommendations to the Leadership Team on where we can most effectively reduce costs, and as we continue to strategize, we will keep you informed. I remain committed to minimizing the programmatic impact of any cost reductions, and given the positive public support for UNH Cooperative Extension, I'm confident we will remain a strong outreach system making impacts important to New Hampshire people.
As we approach the holidays, we should take a moment to reflect on our many accomplishments this past year. Leadership Team approval led the way for the awarding of three high quality, outcome-driven proposals focused on priority issues facing New Hampshire and its residents. These projects were the result of a recommendation from the Strategic Planning Implementation Team and respond to significant issues facing the state.
We continued to welcome new faces this past year. At the county level, new staff included three new forestry and wildlife Extension educators, Deborah Goard, Strafford County, Andrew Fast, Belknap County, and David Falkenham, Grafton County. Also new to Extension this past year are Dawn Bozogan and Barbara Paronto, administrative support, Sullivan County; Lynda Bloom, administrative support, Coos County; Cheryl Gagnon, administrative support, Strafford County; Maggie Decker, administrative support, Hillsborough County; and Arianne Fosdick, volunteer management program assistant, Grafton County.
At the Family, Home and Garden Education Center, Denise Blaha joined our staff as the Energy Answers program coordinator. Energy Answers is one of our significant issues grants.
At the campus level, we welcomed Geri Farnell, Operation Military Kids (OMK) program coordinator; Marjorie Sawtelle, administrative support, Community and Economic Development, Food and Nutrition, and Agricultural Resources; Linda Beaudoin, administrative support, agricultural resources at Spaulding Hall; and Brian Krug, Extension specialist, greenhouse/floriculture.
I continue to be proud to lead an organization that brings meaningful impact to the lives of so many New Hampshire citizens. Despite the budgetary challenges we may face, we will continue to provide a wide variety of successful programs throughout the state in our role as a primary outreach unit of the University of New Hampshire.
We also lost a close friend and colleague, Brian Doyle, who will be deeply missed by us all. The Sea Grant Extension and Water Resources programs have been cited many times for their excellence, due in large part to Brian's wisdom and leadership. As we reflect on the past as well as the future, the loss of Brian is a reminder of how much we need to enjoy the present and value each other. You also may find of interest an article from Foster's Daily Democrat about Brian.
I look forward to working with you as we strive to become an even more effective and efficient educational outreach organization in 2009.
Two Extension staff join other UNH faculty members in the 2009 UNH Outreach Scholars Academy. Now in its fifth year, the Academy is a faculty development program, designed to enhance faculty success in outreach scholarship within the disciplines.
Brian Krug, Extension Specialist, Floriculture, and Paula Gregory, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development, will represent UNH Cooperative Extension this year in the academy.
The Academy will meet several times throughout the coming semester with a national expert, coaches and Outreach Scholars Academy alumni with the goal to identify, mentor and work with faculty from across the institution interested in outreach scholarship. Congratulations!
Given the recent drought in federal funds to support science and industry collaboration, UNH Cooperative Extension Sea Grant and the Northeast Consortium set out on a two-week tour to ask coastal communities the question, "How has collaborative research impacted your community?" Should this type of research continue and be supported by local, state and federal government?
Informal discussions were held in eight communities from Machias, Maine, to Chatham, Massachusetts. This project was significant because it was the first attempt to help individual coastal communities and the Northeast region consider the impact of collaboration and what future opportunities may await. It became clear from all who participated the impact has been great and the loss would be significant.
In addition to these meetings, a survey went to over 1,500 fishermen, scientists, fishery managers, non-governmental staff, and public officials in the focus regions and beyond. Data was collated from the meetings and the survey responses, not only about the impacts of specific collaborative research projects, but on individual perceptions of the benefits of collaborative research, and the impacts that may result from a loss of funding.
Several common perceptions were held by the majority of participants. The ability for management and academic groups to conduct fisheries research has been dramatically enhanced by collaborating with industry. These collaborations moved well beyond an industry “taxi” service and now represent a true sharing of ideas from initial project development through field research. In addition to the social impacts of collaborative research, participants discussed economic benefits, including enhanced gear efficiency through gear design, new fisheries and fishing opportunities as in the ocean quahog, Atlantic halibut and shrimp fisheries, as well as collaborative research dollars to help sustain fishing operations.
Viewpoints from most participants felt that loss of funds would limit research capacity and the capability for science and management to address local immerging concerns or non-regulatory priorities.
Encouraging news include the return of the Saltonstall-Kennedy $5 million grant program to support priorities in aquaculture, fisheries socioeconomics, conservation engineering and right whale entanglement mitigation research. A new grant program is the Southern New England Collaborative Research Initiative of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation with an appropriation of just under $900,000. However, the Northeast Consortium, that provided the framework for collaborative fisheries research to the region, needs to continue to fund a broad range of fisheries initiatives throughout the Gulf of Maine.
The Family, Home and Garden Education Center and the Info-Line (1-877-398-4769) will be closed Monday, December 22, until Monday, January 5, 2009.
A holiday message with closing dates will be put on our phone system. Questions emailed to the Center will receive a similar message. The staff at the Family, Home and Garden Education Center wishes everyone a happy and healthy holiday season!
Claes Thelemarck is the new 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator in Carroll County. He will begin his new position Jan. 5.
Claes, who resides in Tamworth, received his BS from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, with a concentration in environmental and forest biology. He received his MS from Antioch New England Graduate School in environmental studies. Claes most recently worked at the Community School in South Tamworth as a teacher, interim director and dean of students.
Claes enjoys the outside and worked with the Appalachian Mountain Club for six years as coordinator of youth and school programs. As a strong believer in experiential learning and science, he will be instrumental in helping support 4-H's Science, Engineering and Technology initiative. He also is an Extension Covert's Cooperator.
Please join me in welcoming Claes!
UNH Cooperative Extension recently received the following grants and awards:
Alan Eaton, Extension Specialist/Professor, Entomology, received $5,000 from the University of Maine for the project, "PRO New England Pest Management Network." The project involves Integrated Pest Management (IPM) efforts in New Hampshire, promoting the PRONewEngland.org web site and pesticide inquiries. The University of Maine serves as the lead institution for this coordinated approach; other institutions involved include the University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts, University of Rhode Island and University of Vermont.
Ken LaValley, Extension Specialist/Assistant Professor, Commercial Fisheries Technology Transfer, received $4,000 from NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service, for a Northeast Tagging Symposium to discuss the incorporation of fish tagging data into stock assessments and fisheries management plans.
Val Long, Extension's FSNEP Nutrition Coordinator, received $8,000 from the NH Dept. of Education for the recently-held "Building Blocks" conference for food service directors and school nurses.
Val Long and Debbie Luppold, Extension Specialist/Professor, Food and Nutrition, received $774,083 from the NH Dept. of Health and Human Services for the "NH Food Stamp Education" program. This grant enables the NH Food Stamp Program, together with UNH Cooperative Extension, to provide food stamp recipients with the knowledge needed to use their food stamp dollars to feed their families nutritious meals. The core elements of the 2009 NH Food Stamp Nutrition Education plan are dietary quality, shopping behavior/food resource management, food security and food safety, and health lifestyle choices.
Julia Steed Mawson, Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development, received $75,149 from the Education Development Center, Inc. Extension, partnering with the Center, will be involved with afterschool students in grades six to eight in the greater Manchester area as they participate in science exploration of pond life and trees using experiential activities and digital photography. The grant itself was awarded to the Center from the National Science Foundation.
Julia Peterson, Extension Specialist/Professor, Water Resources, received $83,472 from the University of Rhode Island for "Northeast States and Caribbean Islands Regional Water Program - New Hampshire" project. Jeff Schloss, Extension Specialist/Professor, Water Resources, and Bob Craycraft, Extension Educational Program Associate, also are involved in the project.
Michael Sciabarrasi, Extension Specialist/Professor, Agricultural Business Management, received $173,000 from the USDA Risk Management Agency for the "NH Crop and Revenue Insurance Education" program.
Seth Wilner, Extension Educator, Agricultural Resources, received $40,000 from the University of Vermont for the "2008-2011 New Hampshire Sustainable Agriculture Program" for educators. This project seeks to build capacity for Extension educators and specialists in three primary areas: increased knowledge about regional research in sustainable agriculture production topics, increased knowledge in sustainable farm management techniques, and increased skills in on-farm demonstration projects.
Amanda Stone, Extension Land and Water Conservation Program Coordinator, received $30,000 from the NH Dept. of Environmental Services for the "Natural Resources Outreach Coalition: Program and Delivery."
Shane Bradt, Geospatial Technology Extension Specialist and Trent Schriefer, 4-H Youth Science and Technology Extension Specialist, offered a hands-on, 4-H youth-oriented GPS training recently in Laconia.
Operation Military Kids staff and 4-H educators attended the training, "Pictures, Points and Places," introducing a new "GPS Treasure Hunt" 4-H kit developed by Schriefer and Bradt.
Training provided opportunities to learn how to collect waypoints, navigate using GPS units and implement the GPS Treasure Hunt kit as a teaching tool. Following the 4-H experiential learning model, participants used 4-H owned GPS units to navigate GPS waypoints to discover the locations of the treasure (candy and tokens). This simple exercise introduced the concepts of GPS, navigation and the sport of "geocaching."
Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which participants use a Global Positioning system (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches” or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container with a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 800,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to this pastime. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.
The goal of this training was to engage 4-H educators and OMK staff in geospatial technologies, provide materials to conduct youth programs in GPS and to further promote the 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology initiative.
The workshop participants in the above photo are shown with their new teaching kits. For information on partnering with 4-H SET, contact Trent Schriefer at trent.schriefer@unh.edu