Extension News: April 2011 Archives

Deflated balloons and whales may have more in common than you think. According to a new GIS map, they are likely to be found in the same locations in the Gulf of Maine.

The map, created by Shane Bradt, UNH Cooperative Extension specialist in geospatial technologies, provides a visual connection between the areas that some whales travel off the N.H. coast and the location of litter floating nearby.

With funds provided by the N.H. Coastal Program, the map relies in part on data collected during the whale-watch cruises conducted by the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation from May to October each year.

While out on the whale-watch vessels, volunteers record sightings and locations of four finback whales -- Comet, Fjord, Ladder, and Trigger -- and four humpback whales -- Pinball, Satula, Flask, and Owl (all animals available for "adoption" from the Blue Ocean Society). Scientists using underwater sonar and fishermen at sea report debris types and locations. All the whale- and trash-location data are entered into the project's database.

Map offers visual evidence that human trash invades marine habitat

To keep the map simpler and easier to use, Bradt chose to highlight the top five most commonly encountered debris types -- balloons, bottles, cans, plastic bags and wrappers -- that together account for 80 percent of the debris recorded.

"People can relate to these types of debris because they use them in daily life," Bradt says.

The map's various data layers can be turned off and on to select locations of individual whales each year and trash type by month. However, Jen Kennedy, executive director of the Blue Ocean Society, points out that the map doesn't necessarily indicate that whales directly encountered the marine debris, but rather that their locations could overlap. Kennedy and Bradt hope eventually to improve the map to include direct whale encounters with debris.

"This map really shows the personal connection between how we dispose of our trash and the impacts that can have on marine life, including whales," says Kennedy. "We hope this map will make people more aware of their actions and help improve the marine environment."

Kennedy and Bradt say that the GIS map may appeal to the general public and to teachers who can use it in their lesson plans. Bradt encourages online site visitors to take the virtual tour by clicking on the links at the top of the page for instruction on how to use the map more easily and effectively.

The map is an offshoot of the N.H. Marine Debris-to-Energy Project, an effort funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program that seeks to remove derelict fishing gear and human-generated trash that washes out to sea.

Project has collected 36 tons of abandoned fishing gear, 12 tons of trash

Since the the project began three years ago, hundreds of beach cleanups along the Seacoast have collected approximately 36 tons of derelict fishing gear (buoys, fishing line, lobster pots and nets, etc.) and 12 tons of trash.

The recovered debris is placed in marked dumpsters and burned for energy in a Wheelabrator Technologies' waste-to-energy plant in Massachusetts. N.H. Sea Grant and UNH Cooperative Extension are collaborating with the non-profit Blue Ocean Society to help facilitate the program's progress in the Granite State.

For more information, please visit the N.H. Marine Debris to Energy website or the blog, or contact Shane Bradt at shane.bradt@unh.edu or 603.862.4277 or Jen Kennedy at jen@blueoceansociety.org or 603.431.0260.

Photo: The locations of whales (such as the finback whale Comet, pictured here) and floating trash spotted during the Blue Ocean Society's whale-watch cruises are recorded and provide the basis for a new GIS map.

Credit: Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation

We've got the food-gardening resources you need

The snow has disappeared, the spring peepers have begun peeping, daffodils are on full display throughout most of New Hampshire, leaving many Granite Staters itching to get to work in their vegetable gardens.

Between one-third and one-half of American households grew vegetables in backyards, containers, or community gardens last year.

Many home gardeners expanded small kitchen plots to include corn, squash, potatoes, cabbage, onions and other storage crops for the freezer, canning kettle, or root cellar.

Others added plastic-covered high or low tunnels that allow them to get a head start on the growing season and extend it well beyond the first killing frosts of fall.

And urban food gardening became a hot national trend, as increasing numbers of city-dwellers transformed vacant lots, rooftops, patios, and even walls and fences into green, productive spaces.

And why not?

A garden delivers great-tasting, nutritious food, outdoor exercise, and stress reduction. With slight modifications, even young and very old family members and those with disabilities can participate.

An American Gardening Association survey revealed that while Americans spent 22 percent more time in their gardens last year than in 2009, they also spent about 16 percent less money. With careful planning and knowledge, a food garden can save money.

Food-gardening resources

Visit our Home and Community Food Gardening Web pages for information about seed selection, starting seeds indoors, preparing the ground for a garden, planting and transplanting, ongoing care, managing pest and disease problems, using or preserving what you grow, food safety for gardeners, gardening with children, community gardening, and more.

Check out our interactive map of New Hampshire's community gardens. If you have a new garden to list or a correction to our current information, please email Charlie French with details.

Diagnostic services: Low-cost soil testing, insect identification, and plant disease diagnosis.

Can't find the information you need on our Web pages?

Call our Education Center's toll-free Info Line: 1-877-398-4769, Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. and Wednesday evening 5:00 - 7:30. Or you can email your questions to answers@unh.edu

Photo credit: Community garden plot, by Janice Stillman. Used with permission.

Extension's involvement: complex, interdisciplinary, embedded in coalitions

"The fragmentation of natural lands and the conversion of farms and commercial forests to residential or commercial development often degrades natural resources, destroys wildlife habitat, and alters New Hampshire's unique social and physical characteristics," says Charlie French, Cooperative Extension's community economic development specialist.

"Although population growth has slowed in the past decade, a slowdown apparent even before the current recession, New Hampshire's population more than doubled in the decades between 1950 and 2000 and will have tripled by 2030," French says.

"That growth and corresponding land-use changes have been uneven, strong in some regions of the state and declining in others, a trend predicted to continue.

"Community leaders often feel they have to choose between the competing priorities of land conservation and commercial/residential development," says French. "We believe communities should both conserve land AND create economic vitality by finding ways to use land more efficiently and effectively. "

Extension: A century of involvement with land-use issues

Land conservation efforts can take many forms, among them:

• Removing land from future development through conservation easements and outright purchase of development rights.
• Crafting good local ordinances, then working closely with developers to protect and conserve important natural resources.
• Ensuring that New Hampshire's "working landscapes"--farms and forestlands--remain profitable and employ environmentally sound management practices.

We work in all these conservation arenas. Multi-layered and deeply collaborative, our outreach involves Extension experts in forestry, wildlife, agriculture, digital mapping, and community economic development, often embedded in the work of state, regional, and local coalitions.


Extension: first stop for private landowners looking to conserve land

"Extension serves as a first contact for landowners interested in permanently conserving their land," says Phil Auger, Extension land and water conservation educator in Rockingham County. "We meet with clients one on one and/or provide information through workshops.

"This component of our outreach leads to referrals to private conservation organizations, estate-planning attorneys, accountants, and others who can provide services to meet specific family needs. In a typical year I meet with at least 50 landowners and often 100 or more.


Extension supports private-sector service providers

"A major focus of our attention is and always has been support of private-sector organizations that provide services to meet common goals," says Auger. "Extension Foresters refer landowners to licensed private foresters to accomplish forest practices on their land. Similarly, we refer landowners to private-sector land trusts and other non-profit land conservation organizations to carry out the steps necessary to permanently conserve their land.

"Extension foresters also support land trusts by serving on boards and providing our expertise in other ways. Most of us are well-linked with numerous regional and statewide organizations, providing help with workshops, work days, educational publications, and other outreach efforts."


Extension links landowners to cost-sharing conservation programs, provides early project coordination

Extension helps qualifying landowners take advantage of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) funding programs.

These include programs such as the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program (FRPP) and the Wetlands Restoration Program (WRP), which acquire development rights from willing landowners with qualifying land.

Our roles with these programs involve educating landowners about the programs and helping NRCS with program administration. New Hampshire receives from $1.5 to $4 million each year in FRPP funds; over the past three years approximately $50 million in WRP funds have come into the state.

"We provide what I call early project coordination," says Auger. "Often today funding is necessary and the project is complicated by family dynamics, inadequate single-source funding, political issues, and more. Knowing this in advance, I often assemble a team with the landowner's help and approval.

"The team may include town officials, representatives from conservation organizations, and various funders. The early going requires meetings with the land trusts, the conservation commission, and sometimes the board of selectmen, guidance for appraisers, and continued meetings with landowners," says Auger. After a short while, the private organization(s) lead the way toward the finish line, which may be 12-24 months away."

Others praise Auger's work and his expertise. "Phil Auger knows more about potential conservation properties in Southern New Hampshire than anyone I know," says Greg Caporossi, New Hampshire project manager for the Trust for Public Land. He is the eyes and ears on the ground for many conservation organizations. He not only brings a wealth of knowledge about the landscape, but also provides invaluable technical expertise."


Extension works with municipal decision makers, volunteers, conservation groups, and land trusts on natural resources protection and land conservation to help them maintain the rural character they value in their towns, conserve economically important natural resources, and to protect the fabric of New Hampshire's rural landscape.

We respond to land trusts who've identified areas in need of conservation planning, collaborating with them, with towns, and with landowners to get new lands under conservation, targeting assistance in areas where we have expertise.


Extension offers education for healthy, working forests

With 83 percent of our land in trees, forestry is the predominant land use in New Hampshire. Since 1925 Extension's Forestry and Wildlife Program has helped sustain a healthy "working landscape" by offering information and technical assistance to the state's forest landowners, loggers, licensed foresters, sawmills, and energy plants.

We have a statewide network of licensed foresters who make site visits and offer workshops in woodlot care, long-term planning, selling timber, conserving wildlife habitat, estate planning and land protection, current use taxation, and more. Subject-matter specialists in forestry, wildlife, and forest industry are headquartered at UNH in Durham.

We help communities by providing educational support to town boards, public officials, schools, civic groups, and other community organizations.

Other conservation efforts involving Extension Forestry & Wildlife and Land & Water Conservation Program staff:

Good Forestry in the Granite State
During a three-year process involving a 24-member steering committee and input from more than 200 stakeholders, Cooperative Extension shepherded through and published Good Forestry in the Granite State: Recommended Voluntary Forest Management Practices for New Hampshire. This 224-page reference guide provides landowners and the professionals who work with them practical recommendations and information on a wide variety of forest resources.

Forest Laws Workshops for Municipal Officials
In collaboration with the Local Government Center, numerous state agencies and non-profit groups, Extension sponsors three of these popular workshops each year. Aimed at town officials and local boards, the workshops cover diverse topics, including:

• Who's responsible for what
• Timber tax and intent-to-cut forms
• Wetlands regulations, prime wetlands, stream-crossing rules, comprehensive shoreland protection
• Forest Harvest laws (slash law, basal area along roads and streams, timber theft and trespass, deceptive practices)
• Roads (classes, weight limits, bonds, authority)

Taking Action for Wildlife
This collaboration with the N.H. Fish and Game Department helps community decision makers and land trusts understand the information in the state's Wildlife Action Plan, helping them understand how they can incorporate wildlife information into their town ordinances and voluntary land-conservation practices.

Land conservation tools for communities and landowners Many landowners and communities in New Hampshire have permanently protected land from development. There are many organizations, tools, and resources available for those landowners and communities interested in conservation.

Landowner profiles These inspirational stories show how UNH Cooperative Extension works with landowners to care for New Hampshire's forests.

Speaking for Wildlife Trained volunteers from the NH Coverts Project and the Natural Resource Stewards Program are available to deliver wildlife presentations and lead walks, with support from UNH Cooperative Extension staff. Programs are free and available to community groups throughout New Hampshire.

NH Coverts Project Coverts volunteers promote wildlife-habitat conservation and forest stewardship. To date, we've trained and continue supporting around 300 Coverts volunteers from more than 130 New Hampshire communities. In 2010, 297 active Coverts volunteers:

• Worked to permanently protect over 32,000 acres of land, and reached out to over 36,000 people with a message of sound forest stewardship and wildlife conservation.
• Contributed 44,328 volunteer hours (valued at more than $900,000) on behalf of forest stewardship or wildlife habitat issues in their communities.
• Owned or managed over 100,000 acres of land specifically for wildlife each year.
• Conserved more than 32,000 acres in New Hampshire.
• Reached out to 36,000+ people with a message of sound forest stewardship and wildlife conservation.

Extension offers land-conservation outreach to family farmers

Our agricultural staff work directly with farmers throughout New Hampshire, providing one-on-one site visits, soil-testing and other diagnostic services, as well as many hands-on meetings, workshops, and conferences that help farming remain profitable enough to keep farmers working their land.

Conserving the Family Farm: A Guide to Decision-Making for Farmers, other Agricultural Professionals, Landowners and Conservationists. Comprehensive information about land conservation for farm families.

Transferring the Farm
Because it involves talking about the deaths of family elders and who gets the farm after their passing, farm estate-planning isn't easy for farm families to do. Our six-part video series takes farmers step by step through the process, learning from families who've successfully negotiated an intergenerational transfer.

Extension coordinates assistance to coastal watershed communities through the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC)

This initiative includes collaboration with NH DES Watershed Bureau, NH Coastal Program, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP), Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and others.

NROC work includes working with the Coastal Adaptation Workgroup (CAW) which involves 15 organizations. Through this group we are providing educational workshops on climate change to coastal watershed communities.


Extension facilitates Master Plan visioning

Through our Communities program area, Extension helps community leaders engage the public in the process of defining their community's vision for how it will grow and develop over the next 10-20 years. Results of this public engagement process have included new civic participation on municipal land-use committees, securing of funds to address land-use and housing issues, incorporation of new planning tools, and better compatibility between the community's Master Plan and its zoning and subdivision regulations.

Extension teaches digital mapping

Our Geospatial Technologies Training Center conducts a wide diversity of educational programs in digital mapping technologies, including project-based courses and courses offering academic credit. This outreach helps community planners and conservation commissions, environmental groups, land trusts, developers and natural-resource professionals make wise land-use decisions. Check out some of our offerings:

For novices, the offerings provide new mappers with skills to better understand maps, collect information on important natural (and other) resources in their communities, and create their own maps of conservation priorities using free software.

Advanced mapping programs train GIS professionals in advanced techniques to analyze current natural resources, forecast development patterns, and determine areas of conservation priorities in their communities.

Extending the use of Google Earth
We've developed a website that provides Google Earth users with important analytical capabilities (i.e., calculating the area of a field, buffering streams and roads, etc.) which greatly improve the land-use and land-conservation potential of this widely used, free mapping software.

If you're one of many New Hampshire households planning to raise chickens for the family dinner table, you may want to sign up for our June 11 workshop that will teach you to humanely dispatch, de-feather, and process your birds.

Rather than viewing a video or watching someone else do the work, each attendee will receive a live chicken to kill and process under the watchful eyes of expert instructors.

The $50 cost for the workshop includes the price of the live chicken. Download brochure to learn more and find out how to register.

Who says New Hampshire babies don't come with instruction manuals?

For 30+ years, nearly every new baby born in a New Hampshire hospital has gone home with a valuable month-to-month developmental newsletter developed and updated by University of New Hampshire experts on child development.

This year, "Cradle Crier" and "Toddler Tales" have moved into the Internet age in a big way.

During April and May, we'll be merging our New Hampshire child-development newsletters with other land-grant universities across the nation, bringing the next generation of New Hampshire parents into the Just In Time Parenting program. The program is free to parents living in New Hampshire.

Get expert parenting advice

Just In Time Parenting is the effort of a team of Extension child-development experts from across the nation and combines the latest research on raising healthy and happy children with the latest technology.

Web subscribers to the program can ask questions about the challenges of raising children and receive a response from a national expert within a few hours.

By subscribing, New Hampshire parents will become part of a national community of parents who receive a monthly newsletter full of great advice, practical ideas, and vital tips for their growing baby. Parents also have the option of receiving a monthly print edition through the mail.

Online newsletter tracks child development to age 5

One big change for New Hampshire subscribers: The electronic edition of Just In Time Parenting will now follow a baby through his or her fifth year and provide advice on school readiness, discipline, nutrition and all aspects of family life.

Dr. Malcolm Smith, Extension's Family Life and Family Policy Specialist and an advisory member of the National Just In Time Parenting program is leading the development of this new program in New Hampshire.

"This will make one of our most popular New Hampshire programs even better," said Smith, "and it has a look and a feel that will appeal to computer-savvy parents, while still providing, sound, research-based advice for the complexities of raising healthy children in confusing times.

Many project partners

UNH Cooperative Extension has trained hundreds of child care providers, nurses, home visitors, and other parenting professionals to use the Just In Time Parenting program to strengthen New Hampshire families. We'll continue to partner with hospitals, state agencies and private organizations to promote the program.

Parents can check out the Just In Time Parenting program online and sign up directly for the online version. Or they can sign up for either the online or the print version by contacting their county Extension office to sign up.

Soil Testing, Insect ID, Sick Plant Diagnosis

Gearing up for some yard and garden work? Take advantage of our low-cost diagnostic and testing services:

Soil testing Following the recommendations from a soil test will help your lawn, ornamentals, and food plants grow well this season.

Insect and tick identification Most insects cause no harm to plants, humans, pets, or structures, and many perform useful roles in our environment. Use our insect ID service; accurate identification allows you distinguish friend from foe.

Sick plant diagnosis If you have a plant, crop, or patch of lawn that's not doing well, send a sample to our plant diagnostic lab to get an accurate diagnosis of what's going on, along with recommendation for managing the problem.

This year, six families will have the chance to build a boat while making memories during the UNH Marine Docents' annual Family Boat-Building Workshop.

Each family will build the Oyster River Cat, a 12-ft. sailboat that can carry a family of three for a day of sailing on quiet water. It is easily transported and also serves as an excellent rowboat.

Construction will take place Friday through Sunday, May 13-15, at UNH's Kingman Farm in Madbury. Families must include at least one adult and a youth age 12 or older.

No prior woodworking experience is required, but participants should have basic skills using hand tools. An experienced docent boat-builder will help each family to ensure a successful experience. The $975 fee includes all of the boat-building materials, a professionally made sail, and a day of sailing instruction on June 4.

Because space in the program is limited, each family interested in participating must submit an application by May 1.

For more information or to apply
Or contact Mark Wiley at mark.wiley@unh.edu or 603-749-1565.

Photo credit: Ray Belles

April: Month of the Military Child

April marks the nation's "Month of the Military Child," a time to honor youth whose lives have been disrupted by a parent's or another family member's deployment.

In celebration, New Hampshire Operation: Military Kids (OMK), part of Cooperative Extension's 4-H Youth Development program, will partner with many other groups across the state to hold special events during April, and into May and June.

Combining Army green, Coast Guard blue, Air Force blue, Marine red and Navy blue, the color purple symbolizes all branches of the military. On April 15, Purple Up! For Military Kids, NH OMK encourages everyone across the state of New Hampshire to wear purple to show support and thank military children for their strength and sacrifices.

Other events to honor military youth include:

• Saturday, May 14, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Military families will be able to use the indoor climbing wall in New Hampshire Hall on the UNH Campus all afternoon for free--with instruction. A collaboration between Rockingham County 4-H and the UNH kinesiology department, the event will offer games, activities and refreshments.


• Friday, April 29 Belknap County Extension 4-H will host a Military Family Dance at the Laconia Middle School at 7:00 p.m.


• Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30 The Children's Museum of New Hampshire in Dover offers free admission for military families (underwritten by BAE Systems). Museum Hours: Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m,. Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., Mon 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Registration not required.


• Tuesday, June 21, 6:30 p.m. Merrimack County 4-H teens will hold an ice-cream social for military families at Beech Hill Farm in Hopkinton.


• June 26-29, UNH Cooperative Extension's annual Teen Conference at UNH offers special opportunities for military teens.

Pre-registration is required, unless noted. At events requiring registration, children who haven't yet received one will receive a Hero Pack containing items that help connect kids with their deployed family member.

Military families have an opportunity to win elite Flight Line Club tickets to the Boston-Portsmouth Air Show, August 13 and 14 at Pease Tradeport in Portsmouth (courtesy of Stamping Technologies of Laconia). Check the OMK website for more details.

We hope all New Hampshire residents will participate in this month of appreciation. Cooperative Extension's 4-H program partners with all branches of the military, American Legion, Red Cross, schools, Childcare Resource and Referral, N.H. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, Disaster Behavioral Health Response Team, the faith community, community recreation centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, Scouts, and other youth and family organizations to form the outreach effort called Operation: Military Kids (OMK). This program functions in 49 states across the nation, including New Hampshire.

Learn more

Details and registration information for any of the above events
To register for an event
OMK Web pages