Extension Update: April 2009 Archives

The latest issue of the Journal of Extension (JOE) continues to offer excellent resources, including an article on New England Workshops Increase Participant Knowledge of Farm Transfer Issues. One of the authors is UNH Cooperative Extension Specialist/Professor Mike Sciabarrasi.

JOE expands and updates the research and knowledge base for Extension professionals and other adult educators to improve their effectiveness. In addition, JOE serves as a forum for emerging and contemporary issues affecting Extension education, and the latest issue is no exception.

Over 100 New Hampshire youth already have shaken off the snow of a long winter, signing up for summer fun at 4-H Camp. UNH 4-H Camp is currently offering four weeks of environmentally-related camps at Barry Conservation Camp, located in Berlin and offered in partnership with N.H. Fish and Game.

Aquatic Adventures! kicks off the summer from July 5-10. Novice anglers will learn the basic skills and equipment needed to start fishing, while campers with more experience will work on improving their fishing skills and explore the finer details of the angling world.

From July 12-17, campers will learn marksmanship, the safe and responsible use of firearms, principles of hunting and archery, conservation ethics, and much more as they explore the 4-H disciplines of black powder, riflery, pistol shooting and archery at Shooting Sports Sampler.

4-H partners with the N.H. Dept. of Fish and Game Hunter Education Program staff and volunteers to teach safe hunting skills and behaviors July 19-July 24 for the Hunter Education and Certification week, open to youth ages 12 through 16.

The final session, Walk on the Wild Side, takes place July 26 - July 31. Campers will experience nature and reunite with the great outdoors as they create a meal from gathered plants, climb a mountain, swim in a pond and more.

To find out more, information is available on the Web site for the UNH 4-H Camp at Barry Conservation Camp.

Henniker had its Community Profile on April 17-18, with about 60 citizens in attendance over the two days. Projects resulting from the event include:

• Create a comprehensive facility that incorporates many programs now in separate locations (i.e. after-school, health, education, recreation, athletics for all ages of the community.)
• Create a riverwalk project.
• Conduct a study to determine the socio-economic potential of the natural resources while maintaining the rural character of the town's natural resources.
• Improve the town's Web site with a central community events calendar that ensures easy navigation, developed by a professional who maintains the site.
• Improve communication about volunteer opportunities and requirements, by having more personal contact with them through an e-newsletter.

The follow-up meeting, facilitated by UNH Cooperative Extension, takes place May 4 to help guide the project groups in outlining goals, objectives, strategies and timelines.

Special thanks for UNH Cooperative Extension staff for facilitating the success of this event: Dan Reidy, Thom Linehan, Charlie French, Tim Fleury, Mike Koski, Gail Kennedy and Seth Wilner. Seven students from UNH helped scribe. For more information, contact Michele Gagne at michele.gagne@unh.edu

Amy Ouellette is the new Agricultural Resources Extension Educator in Merrimack County, following an internal search.

Amy has served as Agricultural Resources Extension Educator in Belknap County for eight years. She also served as the county office administrator during her tenure in Belknap, where she has done an outstanding job.

Amy is a UNH graduate with a Master's degree in Plant Biology and a native of New Hampshire. She and her family (husband Chris, and daughters Emma and Natalie) live in Pembroke. Her passions include local food and global wine, as well as traveling to exotic locations such as Europe and Washington DC.

She begins working in Merrimack County May 4. Amy said she will greatly miss her farmers and friends in Belknap County, but is looking forward to new challenges and building new relationships as she shifts locations.

Congratulations, Amy! We look forward to working with you in your new position.

UNH Cooperative Extension, along with a diverse team of partners from the Governor’s Office of Economic Stimulus, UNH President’s Office, UNH Vice President’s Office for Outreach and Engagement, UNH Audio/Visual Services, N.H. Public Television, Granite State Distance Learning Network and several others, delivered a three-hour program on New Hampshire’s response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) on April 7 to over 800 representatives of business, education, non-profits and municipalities located throughout the state.

The program focused on resources available to New Hampshire through federal dollars from ARRA, how to apply, and reporting requirements. In addition, it highlighted the many educational resources including web-based videos that UNH is producing for distribution through the state’s Recovery website.

David Foote, Communications and Information Technology director for UNH Cooperative Extension, coordinated the event’s "Tech Team," making sure all the technology worked as planned, including the technology in the MUB's Strafford Room, the technology that made the broadcast to remote sites possible, and the technology used to stream the program to the web from NHPTV.

Charlie French, Community and Economic Development Extension specialist, coordinated the remote site facilitators and developed and processed the event’s evaluation forms. Cooperative Extension facilitators included Debora Cheever and Nancy Evans (Concord), Dan Reidy, Sharon Cowen and Holly McKinney (Manchester), Seth Wilner and Steven Roberge (Keene), Sue Buteau and Larry Barker (Gorham), Ann Hamilton and Tina Savage (Conway), Deborah Maes (Littleton), and Michele Gagne (Rye). Remote site facilitators reported very positive reactions from participants and a quick scan of evaluations indicated participants felt the conference information was very useful.

Orville “Bud” Fitch, Deputy Attorney General and Office of Economic Stimulus director, said in a letter to President Huddleston, "On behalf of the people of New Hampshire, myself, and the team here at the Office of Economic Stimulus, I commend the University of New Hampshire and the excellent team you fielded that made this statewide informational event not only possible, but a complete success! This kind of collaborative effort reflects the ideal for state government and our university working together to do public good. The University's willingness to make this contribution and the talent, commitment and the attitude of your team is part of what makes New Hampshire a special place in which to live and work!"

Against a backdrop of recent news reports citing an increase in child abuse, more than 200 pediatric nurses, family-support professionals, child care providers, social workers and home visitors attended two Oh Baby! trainings held in Manchester and Portsmouth in the past month. A third training, scheduled for May 21 at Plymouth State University, is filling fast.

Designed by UNH Cooperative Extension Parenting and Child Development team members, the program helps participants use Extension's popular child-development newsletters, Cradle Crier and Toddler Tales, as part of an ongoing effort to educate New Hampshire parents and reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect in New Hampshire.

The programs featured Dr. John Hornstein, a former UNH professor and a consultant to Harvard Medical School, who presented, "Culture, the Brain, and the Wisdom of the Young." Hornstein gave participants an update on current brain research with infants and toddlers and new methodology for educating young parents.

Other highlights included presentations by Sarah Leonard, infant and toddler teacher at UNH's Child Study and Development Center, and Extension Specialist Malcolm Smith.

The Manchester training was co-sponsored by Early Learning New Hampshire and hosted by the Family Education Collaborative at the Manchester YWCA. The Portsmouth Community Campus hosted the Portsmouth event, which was co-sponsored by Families First, a parent resource and education center.

Derry had its Community Profile (Our Town, Our Future) on Saturday April 4, with over 150 residents in attendance. Projects resulting from the event include:

• Implement Beaver Lake Watershed Management Plan as part of the town's Master Plan,
• Develop a community center (virtual, physical or both),
• Hire a community and volunteer outreach coordinator,
• Develop a task force to review planning and zoning regulations for stricter requirements and more proactive enforcement,
• Fix downtown traffic based on a completed traffic study with a focus on downtown to help shoppers/diners get through the city,
• Develop a comprehensive economic development vision and plan, inclusive of diverse locals,
• Have the town take a leadership role in purchasing and redeveloping property in downtown, and
• Create a community calendar for distribution.

The follow-up meeting, facilitated by UNH Cooperative Extension, takes place April 29 to guide the project groups in outlining their goals, objectives, strategies and timelines. Special thanks to UNH Cooperative Extension staff for helping facilitate the success of this event: Rick Alleva, Claudia Boozer-Blasco, Dan Reidy and Deb Maes. Graduate students from the Vermont School of International Training (SIT) also helped to facilitate/scribe for the event. For more information, contact Michele Gagne at michele.gagne@unh.edu

Cheers for Peers provides a way for UNH Cooperative Extension staff to simply and immediately acknowledge the positive contributions co-workers make to each other, the work place, our clients, the organization and the University.

Recognition from co-workers for a job well done is especially valuable and can reinforce good work and build collegiality. Cheers for Peers is for all UNH Cooperative Extension staff, including support staff employed by a New Hampshire county.

Our winners, chosen at random from all names accumulated in the January, February and March quarter, are Deb Cheever and David Foote. Congratulations also go to Deb Russell and Mary West for being randomly selected from the list of those who sent a Cheers for Peers card to a colleague. Contact Holly Young for your reward.

To recognize someone, go to the Staff Recognition page to learn more about the award in the Supporting Documents section.

It's nomination time for the 2009 Governor's Award for Outstanding Volunteer Manager. This award annually honors a volunteer administrator for excellence in leadership and management of volunteers in New Hampshire.

It is presented by Gov. John Lynch at the annual Governor's Conference on Volunteerism, to be held this year on May 12 at the N.H. Technical Institute in Concord. Consider nominating an outstanding volunteer administrator who deserves to be recognized for his/her talents, dedication and service.

Volunteer recognition is an important facet of a successful program, and this is an opportunity to spotlight extraordinary accomplishments in our communities. Extension Educators Deb Cheever and Larry Barker are past recipients. Nominations will be accepted until April 17.

The Rockingham County staff welcomes Donna Funteral, who will provide administrative support as an Extension Educator Assistant.

Her initial responsibilities will include assisting the County Office Administrator and staff in public relations and marketing with legislators and other decision-makers, stakeholders and Rockingham County citizens. She also will help with the Advisory Council and other Extension projects.

Donna comes to Rockingham County with extensive prior experience as project coordinator at Durham Copy, assistant events manager at Stroudwater Books in Portsmouth, sales assistant with the Green Company in Newton, MA and layout designer at Tri-Town Newspapers in Dover. She has a BA in English from UNH and was copy editor of the student newspaper, The New Hampshire.

Congratulations to Seth Wilner, this year's recipient of the Maynard and Audrey Heckel Extension Educator Fellowship Award, for his Whole Farm Planning Using the Holistic Management Process in New Hampshire. Seth receives a $1,000 award to "support/enhance the continued work of the chosen fellow within UNH Cooperative Extension" as designated by the Heckels.

At the April 30 State Advisory Council meeting, Seth will highlight the program and receive his award.

Over the five years Seth has been conducting this program, there have been numerous accomplishments. Participants increased their ability to define what they are managing their farms and lives towards, developed a three-part goal to guide and monitor their decisions, increased their farm and family profitability, and improved the quality of their lives. Additionally, participants improved environmental conditions on their farms, and many became more involved in their communities.

To date, over 220 participants and 28 farm families developed and implemented at least part of a whole farm plan as a result of this program. Below are some examples of its impact:

• Farms hold weekly meetings to communicate about major issues and decisions and have increased their farm efficiency, saving them valuable time as a result.
• Participants developed family budgets and monitor these regularly, reducing overspending and debt levels.
• A land trust consisting of five farm families and a 12-member board of directors used this process to construct new governance procedures and as a result significantly reduced conflicts between board members and the average meeting time by an estimated two hours per meeting.
• Three land trust board members used the organizational plan developed through this process to apply for a $195,000 grant for low income communities to put in a commercial food processing center.

Participants come from Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island to attend. Wilner also has been asked to teach and consult in New York, Virginia, Massachusetts and New Mexico. He also wrote or co-wrote four grants exceeding $246,000 to fund these programs and offset costs to participants.

As Pooh Sprague of Edgewater Farm noted in his letter of recommendation, “The holistic management has addressed this as well as made us all think about and work towards improving the quality all our lives as well as all who work here. We truly feel that we are on the right track as we look to the future and the farm transfer, and Seth has been
a large part of getting us to this point.”

Congratulations, Seth!

UNH President Mark Huddleston, in an April 3 letter to the university community, has indicated that UNH will need to close a $9 million gap in the FY10 budget and a $17 million gap in FY11.

He did say, however, that these gaps will be addressed "without compromising the quality of the education we provide to our students, the research we undertake to further human understanding, or the service we provide to the people of New Hampshire."

To learn what budget mitigation steps have been approved, please take a moment to read through his letter to the community. These steps were approved by President Huddleston following extensive consultation with the Central Budget Committee.

I am pleased to report that full funding was restored for Cooperative Extension and other agencies in Strafford County for FY09 on Monday, March 30. Here is the organizational response to the vote taken by the Delegation.

Overall, throughout the state, seven of the 10 counties are on a calendar fiscal year and they have all passed their budgets supporting extension. Sullivan, Grafton and Hillsborough are on a July 1 fiscal year so it will be another three months before they take final budget action and we are anticipating support in those counties as well.

Heather Bryant is Grafton County's new agricultural resources educator. Originally from Maine, Bryant has a degree in natural resources from Cornell University and recently completed a Master’s in Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maine which focused on yield, economic, soil quality and weed impacts of a hybrid mulching system using a combination of plastic and living mulches to grow vegetables.

Prior to graduate school, Bryant worked in Madagascar for nearly six years as a Peace Corps volunteer and later as a project manager with a British non-profit called the Andrew Lees Trust. During that time, her primary responsibilities included developing and managing a training program teaching trainers and end-users to build improved wood cookstoves.

Bryant’s team trained the women who built 42,000 stoves across southern Madagascar. While completing the stove project, Bryant wrote a funding proposal that now allows the former stove trainers to use their training skills to help farmers in southern Madagascar re-introduce sorghum as a regional agricultural crop.

Living and working in Madagascar sparked an interest in agriculture and taught Bryant the importance of food security. She is looking forward to putting what she learned there and in graduate school to work here in New Hampshire. Bryant’s particular interests in agriculture include local food systems, farm diversification and season extension in vegetable production. Please welcome her to Extension!