Extension News: Community Archives

Granite State values citizen participation

New Hampshire towns have followed this strong tradition of public participation; we're one of only two states in the nation that still uses town meeting as a way to engage citizens in local decision-making (Vermont being the other). Many New Hampshire towns have had a town meeting form of government since the 17th century.

With town meeting rapidly approaching for many New Hampshire towns, let's take the time to reflect on what it means to participate in public decision-making, whether these decisions focus on a community's master plan, local schools, capital improvement projects, economic development, or other local issues. Here are just a few reasons:

• Community residents know their issues and needs best.


• Public forums can educate both citizens and policy-makers about the various perspectives around any given issue.


• Moving a decision or policy into action is more likely if the public is vested in the process.


• Public participation builds accountability for both public officials and the citizenry.

Public Radio's interactive town meeting mapping project
New Hampshire Public Radio recently collaborated with the New Hampshire Local Government Center to create a new way for citizens to learn about and become active in local affairs--an interactive town meeting map, where citizens can find the details of their local town meeting, view some of the warrant articles up for consideration, and participate in a dialogue on the issues. Close to 100 towns have submitted information so far, and the project continues to grow.

Town meeting isn't the only opportunity to get involved in decision-making in your community. To find out about a variety of other ways to get involved, visit Public Participation in Local Decision-making.

Rooftop planting offers a host of benefits to urban environment

A balloonist floating over Manchester City Hall's Connector Building might look down on an expanse of perennial flowering plants growing in rooftop containers and think, "How lovely!"

But "green roofs" like this GreenGrid System deliver many benefits, both to the building below and to the overall urban environment.

UNH Cooperative Extension conceived the idea for the demonstration project and began recruiting partners from the Manchester community in 2002. The essential project components--an appropriate site, city approval, and funding--finally came together last May, enabling us to us to move forward and get the roof in place.

Benefits of a green roof
Most of the rain that hits a conventional city building's roof flows off over pavement and into storm drains, carrying pollutants such as gasoline, oil, antifreeze, sand and trash.

The GreenGrid roof will absorb up to 95 percent of an average rainfall. By slowly percolating through the plants and soil of the green roof, roof runoff occurs several hours after peak flows, giving sewer systems time to handle other runoff.

The plants and soils in a green roof serve many other functions, which include:

• Reducing the energy needed to heat and cool the building below.
• Saving money by extending the life of the original roof.
• Filtering air pollutants.
• Improving air quality.
• Absorbing noise.
• Reducing the risk of flooding and overflowing sewers.
• Providing habitat for butterflies and other pollinators.

The green roof components

• Four-inch deep containers manufactured from recycled plastic.
• Lightweight growing mix.
• Perennial plants in this system--sedums and chives--which withstand extremes of temperature and precipitation, and require almost no maintenance.

• The GreenGrid System didn't require any roof construction or redesign.
• Workers placed a slip sheet on top of original roof.
• Then they lifted the pre-planted containers into place.
• Installation took two hours.

Watch a slide show of the entire process, from filling planters to final installation on roof. Show includes both text captions and audio.

The Manchester City Web site will provide updates on the green roof, including updates on temperature monitoring and pollutant absorption.

Check out our project sign, soon to go up in City Hall Plaza

Learn more
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Roof page
Green Roofs/Healthy Cities Network
Penn State's Center for Green Roof Research
Michigan State's Green Roof Research Program
ecogeek Cool photos!

By Mary Tebo, UNH Cooperative Extension community forestry educator and Green Roof Demonstration Project coordinator

Manchester Green Roof Project Funders

UNH Cooperative Extension in partnership with N.H. Division of Forests and Lands and USDA Forest Service
TFMoran Inc.
McLane Law Firm
Manchester Development Corporation
Lavallee Brensinger Architects Fund of the N.H. Charitable Foundation, Manchester Region
Weston Solutions, Inc.
N.H. Dept. of Environmental Services
Anonymous Fund of the N.H. Charitable Foundation
Breathe NH
SEPP - Enterprise Fund, administered by the City of Manchester Environmental Protection Division

In-kind Supporters

City of Manchester
Intown Manchester
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
UNH Manchester
Posted September 19, 2007 | TrackBack

We have lots of species of bees in New Hampshire that dig solitary nests in soil. Many started digging just this week.

They prefer sandy soil that has a bare surface, but tolerate some sparse vegetation. Each female bee builds one burrow for herself, in which to store food and rear young. If a patch of ground is particularly attractive, lots of bees may build burrows close together there. They are not particularly aggressive.

If their presence is objectionable, you can cover the soil with mulch, or grow grass or other thick ground cover. Adding mulch is a quick solution; growing plants takes time to work.

Alan Eaton, UNH Cooperative Extension Professor/Specialist, Entomology, says pesticides are NOT recommended; these are valuable pollinators, and honeybees (closely related species) are having serious problems here in New Hampshire.

Here's a fact sheet to learn more.

Not knowing whether to send snow or rain, Mother Nature has covered much of the state in a glaze of ice that reminds us of the ice storm of 1998. We learned many lessons from that storm, the most important- trees and forests recover from damage, so don’t panic, be safe and seek professional help.

The best advice is a word of caution: Removing large trees or limbs is dangerous. Don’t climb a ladder with a chain saw. Don’t climb into a damaged tree. Never touch any tree near electrical wires. Assess your particular tree situation carefully and watch for safety hazards. Most tree work needs to be done by professional arborists, especially when the work requires climbing or the tree is leaning against another tree or structure.

Assess immediate hazards first: Remove dead trees; trees or branches that are leaning; trees with broken or cracked stems; trees with extensive broken roots; and any large, dead, or broken limbs that are still attached to the tree.

Hire an arborist: For homeowners, hire a qualified arborist to get the work done properly and safely. Trained arborists are aware of proper pruning and removal procedures and can reduce the chance of further damage to the tree. Check to see that they are certified and ask for certificates of insurance, including proof of liability for personal and property damage and worker’s compensation. Also, request local references and get more than one estimate.

Prevent additional damage: Later, you may want to prune the damaged trees to improve appearance and reduce additional hazards. If the top has been broken, the tree should be pruned back to a strong lateral branch. Damaged branches should be pruned back to the branch collar.

Don’t forget to look at your trees in the spring and summer: Some damage may not be immediately apparent. Hidden cracks may cause branches to droop when leaves come out in the spring. Stem decay, as well as cracks, may lead to structural loss, causing the tree or large branches to become hazardous. Root damage may not be evident until twigs or branches in the upper crown begin dying after two or three growing seasons.

Hire a forester: If you own large acreage, contact your County Extension Forester or a licensed forester to assess the damage, then salvage the trees if needed. Over time, damaged trees may develop decay and discoloration. As long as it is safe, there is no need to rush. You have more than a year to act before you lose wood to discoloration and decay.

By Karen Bennett, UNH Cooperative Extension forest resources specialist

For additional information and assistance:

• Certified Arborists
• County Extension Forester
• Directory of Licensed Foresters
• Hiring an Arborist
• Ice Resistant Trees
• Ice Storm of ‘98
• Large Tree Care and Pruning
• Pruning Storm Damaged Trees

Does the commercialism of this time of year get you down? Are you concerned that members of your family may be caught up in the “what are you going to do for me mode” instead of the “what can I do for others mode?”  Well, this might be the perfect time of year to turn things around.  Opportunities abound for individuals and families who want to make a difference in the lives of others.

Just in case you have totally lost faith in those around you, read a few of these findings recently reported by the Corporation for National and Community Service:

• Volunteerism in this country has rebounded and we are at a 30 year high.  In New Hampshire, roughly 30 percent of those 16 and older volunteer.
• Older teenagers (16-19) have more than doubled their time spent volunteering since 1989.  About 55 percent of youth participate in volunteer activities each year.
• College students increased their volunteering by 20 percent between 2002 and 2005.
• Baby Boomers volunteer at a much higher rate in mid-life than the previous generation.
• The 65 and older age group increased their volunteering rate 64 percent since 1974.
• Since 1989 there has been a 63 percent increase in volunteering with educational and youth serving organizations.

All of this volunteerism is cause for celebration! Young people volunteer because they feel compassion for others in need, or they want to do something for a cause they believe in … not unlike the reasons many adults volunteer. 

So if this holiday season has put you in a giving mood, consider giving something of yourself and encourage others to do a few good deeds as well. You might be the inspiration needed to motivate your family, friends or coworkers to make a difference in someone else’s life.  And guess what?  Everyone will benefit from those great feelings of satisfaction one gets from helping others.  It is a win-win situation.

What can you volunteer to do this month?  You don’t need to have money to give of yourself, but if you have the means, donations of food, clothing, and gifts are always welcomed.  Following are a few suggestions to get you started:

• “Adopt” a child, family or elderly person in need this season
• Donate food to a local food pantry for distribution
• Cook something for someone you know who needs a lift
• Visit seniors in your neighborhood
• Play a game or cards with someone in a nursing home
• Assist in serving meals at a shelter
• Donate a gift card or certificate
• Buy presents for someone you don’t know
• Volunteer at an organization needing help sorting donations
• Provide comfort to someone in need
• Get your coworkers involved in a volunteer effort or donation drive
• Invite people who are alone to enjoy a meal with your family
• Donate items you not longer use
• Give to your favorite charity
• Share a special skill you have with others
• Assist with a home or car repair
• Call someone that needs a good listener
• Give a phone calling card
• Help prepare food baskets
• Buy a gas card to contribute to a worthy organization to share with someone in need
• Donate personal care items to a shelter

Hopefully you will find time in your busy schedule to do something nice for someone else this holiday season. Maybe you will inspire others to volunteer to make a difference throughout the whole year. Maybe, you will even stimulate someone to do a whole lifetime of giving! 

To learn more about what’s needed and how you can help, contact your nearby United Way office, a local community service organization or your town office.  If you are looking for a few specific ideas, the internet is a good place to look as well.  Check out these websites:

• Volunteer Match
• United Way
• Energize
• Give Spot

Charlotte W. Cross, Extension Professor/Specialist, 4-H Youth Development

During the holidays we traditionally think about providing food to those who can’t afford to provide for themselves. While the holidays are difficult for families with limited incomes, many families must search year-round for food from emergency sources, such as food pantries and soup kitchens.

The New Hampshire Food Bank, the only food bank in New Hampshire, knows the challenges of hunger all too well. Serving more than 350 soup kitchens, shelters, and food pantries throughout New Hampshire, the Food Bank distributed 3.9 million pounds of food last year—up from just over two million in 2004, according to Melanie Gosselin, the Food Bank’s executive director. By supporting the New Hampshire Food Bank, you are supporting an organization that “feeds the programs that feed the hungry.”

New Hampshire’s emergency food system: straining from the need
More than 95,000 people in New Hampshire live below the federal poverty guideline, $20,000 annual income for a family of four. An additional 120,000 people live in households with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level.

The majority of New Hampshire’s poor adults hold jobs, but earn low wages. From 2000 to 2005 New Hampshire experienced a loss of manufacturing jobs and an increase in low-wage retail jobs. We see this shift reflected in the rise in use of federal food assistance programs and food pantries.

Last year 56,338 people received food stamp benefits in New Hampshire, yet only 54 percent of the households eligible to receive the benefits choose to participate in the program. This lack of full participation in the federal nutrition assistance programs strains the already-burdened emergency food system. Even when families participate in the food stamp program, they must still rely to some extent on the emergency food system, since average monthly food assistance benefit per person is $80.56.
 
Studies reveal the extent of hunger and need in New Hampshire
America’s Second Harvest, the organization that provides networks for more than 800 food banks around the country conducted a national survey in 2005 to determine the extent of need in each state. Food pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens reported increases in requests for their services and survey respondents verified their need to visit one or more food pantries a month in order to meet their family’s nutritional needs. Here in New Hampshire:

• 45 percent of respondents said they had to choose to pay medical bills before food
• 42 percent choose to pay for utilities before food
• 27 percent reported paying for rent before food

The recently released New Hampshire’s Basic Needs and Livable Wage Study indicates that a family of four (two parents, two children, both parents working) must have an income of $48,625 to meet their basic needs—is two to two-and-a-half times more than the average low-wage employee earns annually. The study defines the basic needs as food, shelter, heating fuel, transportation, taxes, basic telephone service, childcare, healthcare, and some clothing allowances. It assumes the family prepares all of their food from home and doesn’t count cable television or internet services—living conditions most of us would consider stark at best.

These aren’t temporary statistics occurring only during the holidays. These figures persist throughout the year and are on the rise. Census and federal nutrition assistance program data show a steady increase in individuals and families looking for sources of food to meet their basic needs.

In October the United States Department of Agriculture released their 2005 Household Food Security Study, which indicates the percentage of people who have difficulty buying enough food for their families because they don’t have enough money. The USDA survey reports:

• Nearly 7 percent of New Hampshire households experience food insecurity because they don’t have money to buy enough food to meet their family’s nutritional needs.
  
  
• More than 2 percent report going without food for a number of days at some point during the year because they didn’t have enough money to buy food.

Need for emergency food supplies will continue
Unless these root causes of hunger and food insecurity change, many families in New Hampshire will continue to require emergency food assistance to meet minimum nutrition needs. You can support the New Hampshire Food Bank with donations of money, food, or time. The virtual food drive is a welcome effort to combat hunger in New Hampshire. Every dollar donated to the food bank has the buying power of four meals. Donations of food with high nutritional value and volunteering are all welcome sources of support.

By Helen E. Costello, MS, RD, LD, UNH Cooperative Extension Nutrition Connections Program Food Security Consultant

Costello chairs the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of the America Dietetic Association and sits on the advisory councils for both the UNH Center for a Food Secure Future and the New Hampshire Food Bank.

For more information about hunger and food security in New Hampshire:

• Extension’s hunger and food security pages
• UNH Center for a Food-Secure Future
• New Hampshire Food Bank

Hundreds of beautiful poinsettias in a huge array of colors await visitors to the first Poinsettia Trials Open House at the University of New Hampshire Research Greenhouses December 6-8.

This collaborative event brings more than 80 poinsettia varieties developed by breeders to New Hampshire growers and the general public. If you visit, you can help researchers by recording your favorites from among many new and different varieties, including some that aren’t yet available for sale and are being shown for the first time.

The Poinsettia Open House will begin on Wednesday, December 6 and run through Friday, December 8. Hours will be 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, and from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. A broad selection of the many poinsettia varieties will be available for purchase on all three days.

Metered parking will be available at the UNH Visitor Center across from the greenhouses. Please join us in celebrating the season by exploring the amazing diversity of poinsettias.

A series of booking photos (scroll to bottom of page) taken over a 10-year span shows an attractive, 28-year-old blonde who changes into a gaunt, sickly woman looking much older than her 37 years.

The woman’s health and appearance was drastically altered by her body’s addiction to methamphetamine, which Newsweek magazine, in its August, 2005, cover story, called “America’s most dangerous drug.”

New Hampshire has yet to see the large numbers of methamphetamine addicts that Western and Midwestern states have experienced. But law enforcement officials say New Hampshire’s large expanses of wilderness are attracting those who manufacture the drug. In fact, 12 of the 18 methamphetamine labs discovered in New England in 2004 and 2005 were located in New Hampshire, many of them in rural Grafton County.

The effects of meth
Methamphetamine, also known as meth, crystal, ice, fire, croak, crank, glass, crypto, and white cross, is a powerful stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It makes people feel euphoric; its high can last for six to eight hours or more. Unlike some drugs that can take years to form an addiction, meth can cause addiction from a single use.

But though they keep trying, many users find it impossible to replicate that first feeling of euphoria experienced after initial use. People addicted to meth may suffer irreparable brain damage, as well as other health problems, financial ruin, loss of family, and death.

When on an extended meth high (called “tweaking”) people lose interest in eating and sleeping. Their only goal is to keep the high going for as long as they can, sometimes for days. Paranoia, hallucinations, violent behavior, and psychosis are common. Meth addicts’ typical neglect of personal hygiene is compounded by the smell of meth in their perspiration, a smell described as “putrid.”

Dentists across the country are discovering “meth mouth” caused by long-term methamphetamine use. Symptoms include tooth decay and receding gums. While on meth, some users begin picking at their skin to rid their bodies of imaginary bugs. Perhaps the worst effect is permanent brain damage, as meth destroys the part of the brain that registers pleasure. Long-term meth users can no longer feel pleasure, no matter how much of the drug they use.

Effects on children
Addicted parents may abuse or neglect their children when under the influence of the meth. Some children become “cooking assistants” to parents manufacturing the drug. Others get injured when the “cooking” process erupts into fires or explosions.
Children growing up or around a meth lab may carry the remnants of the drug dust on their clothing and skin. When children are removed from their home, all their possessions must be destroyed because they too are contaminated.

The walls, floors, furniture, draperies and other furnishings in a home, apartment, or garage where methamphetamine is produced and where wastes are disposed typically require assessment and cleanup. The average cost of a cleanup is about $5,000, but can reach $150,000. Who should pay the bill for this cleanup? The building’s owner? The renter? The town? A federal agency? What happens when those resources are exhausted?

Environmental hazards
In addition to the human toll, methamphetamine also poses a hazard for the environment. Meth paraphernalia left on the open ground can contaminate the soil and water runoff can pollute surface waters, wetlands, and groundwater. In some areas of the country, runoff from meth manufacturing facilities has killed livestock and destroyed large areas of trees and vegetation.

Experts estimate that the manufacture of each pound of meth produces five to six pounds of hazardous wastes that often get disposed of illegally in the environment. To make matters more challenging, many of these sites are in residential settings. This means children and other occupants of the property, as well as nearby neighbors, may be exposed to hazardous chemicals and harmful gases during and after the cooking process.

Cheap and easy to manufacture
Meth is cheaply and easily manufactured from readily available ingredients such as decongestant tablets (pseudoephedrine), iodine, Drano, rubbing alcohol, salt, common matches, and commercial fertilizer. “Lab” equipment includes such common items as plastic tubing, Mason jars, coffee filters, soda bottles, blenders, camera batteries, propane cylinders, and hot plates, electric frying pans or camp stoves.

New Hampshire’s Attorney General and county attorneys, as well as local, state and federal law enforcement officials, have begun working together to keep the methamphetamine problem from escalating in New Hampshire. Despite relatively low numbers of meth users, the social and economic costs of meth addiction are high.

Farm and forest factories
Methamphetamine’s relative ease of manufacture has long range implications for communities and landowners. People who make methamphetamines may use secluded farm or forest land to hide their illegal activities. Landowners who frequently walk their land are less likely to become victims of unauthorized use of their land.

Here are a few tips to help landowners protect themselves and their property:

• Don’t accept cash for the use of your property.
• Know what happens on your property.
• Don’t bury, move, or examine any trash found on your property.
• If you discover the trappings of meth manufacturing: red-stained coffee filters, plastic bottles with attached tubing, empty cold-tablet packaging, don’t touch or move anything. You could be putting your health at risk. Don’t confront anyone involved in suspicious activity on your property. If your town has an anonymous reporting system, call that number. Report any suspicious activity on your land to local law enforcement officials, but leave the dangerous part to those who are specially trained for cleanup.

Inform yourself and take action
A recently formed New Hampshire Government Leaders Methamphetamine Task Force has developed a statewide strategy to keep meth use from growing in New Hampshire.

Local, state and federal officials are committed to getting and keeping methamphetamine issues in the open for citizens to learn more. As a community member, learn all you can about this drug and its devastating impacts. You can mobilize your fellow community members to become more aware of the dangers of methamphetamine, co-sponsor open forums and protect yourself and your family.

To learn more:

• How meth destroys the body
• Meth pharmacology (how it works in the body)
• Meth Q & A
• National Institute on Drug Abuse Infofacts: Methamphetamine
• New Hampshire Government Leaders Methamphetamine Task Force
• Photo gallery: Faces of meth

People who come together to tend a vegetable garden produce much more than food. They get the camaraderie of work, a sense of community, a bond to the land, food for the soul and a lower weekly grocery bill.

This has definitely been true for the 12 Somali Bantu, Sudanese, and Meskhetian Turk families who have been coming together weekly since early May to tend their plots in the Brookside International Community Garden in Manchester.
           
Started in 2005 on the initiative of Master Gardener Riekie Sluder and I, the garden has thrived. This year it almost doubled in size, to 4500 square feet. In August the families harvested as much as 150 pounds of okra, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, herbs, and flowers. That’s amazing, considering that this was the most difficult growing season in several years.

The community garden is a partnership between Brookside Congregational Church, the International Institute of New Hampshire and UNH Cooperative Extension. For the church, which contributes the land and water, it’s about community outreach. For the Institute’s Anne Sanderson, “it’s about helping immigrants become integrated into American life. They learn about scheduling, punctuality and arranging for transportation. They get a chance to grow foods from their native homeland. They begin to understand that there are people trying to help them adjust to life in America.” And that last item sends a powerful, positive message indeed.
           
For the UNH Master Gardener volunteers, it’s all about the people. It’s about bridging cultural differences, about learning to communicate with sign language, smiles and body language. It’s about the pleasure of working in a garden with others on a sunny summer day. It’s about teaching, But, most of all, it’s about joy.
           
The experiences shared within this disparate group of gardeners build memories that will last a long time. Some are fabulous, some humorous, some bittersweet. Some are poignant, like the day a church member and her mother paid a visit to the garden. They had been arranging the funeral of the church member’s grandmother. The member’s mother, grieving and tearful, was able to connect with Romena Fatkulina, a young Turkish mother who speaks some English, and who had lost her own mother recently. The visitors stayed to work in the garden for a while. They found the experience healing and said they’d come again.
           
The week after planting, the refugees and Master Gardeners cooked a meal for each other in the church kitchen. Each group prepared dishes they would be cooking from the vegetables they hoped to harvest. The Master Gardeners prepared a vegetable omelet, two salads and mint tea. The Africans cooked a delicious casserole using goat meat and vegetables. The Turks made a stir-fry using potatoes, green vegetables and what they thought was chicken, but which turned out to be pork—forbidden by their religion. Apparently, the specified ingredient got lost in translation to the shopping list. But once the mistake was revealed, the gardeners good-naturedly traded dishes and enjoyed themselves despite the confusion.

All these immigrant groups have close relationships within large, extended families. At one time or another, most of the gardeners bring some of their children with them. The children generally learn to speak more English faster than their parents and often become their interpreters. Children will ask for the English names for common objects used in the garden. Then they try to teach the Master Gardeners the words in their native languages. You can guess which group is more successful!
           
Here’s a conundrum for you: Romena asked one day, “Why are American grocery stores full of boxes? Don’t Americans know how to cook?” Apparently her apartment building houses seven Turkish families, some Sudanese and one American family. The Americans, she noted, always eat convenience food. That’s food for thought.
           
As the season winds to a close, the gardeners will be harvesting butternut squash and cabbage to provide some food this fall. We’ll clean up the garden and begin planning for next year, incorporating some of what we’ve learned and chuckling over other parts.

In 2004 the city of Manchester alone helped to settle more refugees than settled in 23 other states. Because of the generosity of donors, the partners and volunteers, Brookside International Community Garden has helped to create a warm welcome for a few of these refugee families. If you’d like to donate to the garden, please contact Margaret Hagen or phone (629-9494).

By Margaret Hagen, Hillsborough County Agricultural Resources Educator

The disastrous floods of May have receded and most New Hampshire residents have cleaned up and returned to their flood-damaged homes.

But more than 300 New Hampshire families are waiting for help cleaning and sanitizing their homes to make them safe enough to live in. Some displaced families are living in cars and shelters.
 
“With the arrival of summer heat and humidity, we need to move fast to get ahead of the growth of mildew and other molds that can cause health problems for residents,” says Carole Totzkay-Sitar, a health educator with the Bureau of Emergency Management. “State health and safety officials need 200 volunteers to take the training and team up with experienced mold-mitigation teams already on the job.”

Molds threaten human health
“Families in Rockingham, Strafford, Merrimack, Hillsborough, Belknap, and Carroll Counties need immediate help,” Totzkay-Sitar says. “Failure to remove contaminated materials and to reduce moisture and humidity can present serious long-term health risks to the people who live there. Microorganisms that thrive in areas that are wet, damp, or retain water can cause disease, trigger allergic reactions and continue to damage household materials long after the floodwaters recede.”

“Mud Out” volunteer training
To boost volunteer recruitment, state health and emergency management officials, working through Volunteer NH!, have joined forces with southern New Hampshire church groups who’ve had experience organizing volunteers to go into homes to remove damaged contents, clean, and sanitize flooded premises. They plan to offer at least one “Mud Out” volunteer training in July, which will cover proper clothing, tools, safety, and health issues related to molds. All Mud Out volunteers will be teamed with an experienced “mudder.”

Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and healthy. They will need to sign a liability waiver, and provide their own protective equipment. For more information about becoming a Mud Out volunteer, call 1-800-780-8058.

Flood-damaged home? Take action now!
State officials encourage any resident whose home was flooded not to wait for FEMA funds, insurance payouts, or volunteer helpers before taking action to assess health and safety threats in their homes. If you have concerns about the health risks of molds, contact your family health care provider. For information about conducting a mold assessment or about mold removal, call Rhonda Martin at the Department of Environmental Services at 271-3911.

Links to written information about mold in homes:

• Mold in Your Home? (NH Department of Environmental Services flyer)
  
• NH Air Resources fact sheet
  
• A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home (US Environmental Protection Agency)
  

Natural resources play a huge, often unrecognized role in our communities. Many people living or working in cities believe that natural resources lie outside of the city, and that they have to go to into rural areas to experience the natural world.

In my work, I help people understand the importance of the natural resources in their own backyards, along their downtown streets, in neighborhood parks and cemeteries, and in small patches of forestland. These street trees, landscapes, community gardens, and “pocket parks” can change people’s lives.

Natural resources improve quality of life, even in urban environments
Research backs up our experience that natural resources such as trees, shrubs and flowers in our communities can:
 

So if trees and other plants really can improve quality of life, how do you get people who are worried about school budgets, parking problems, or high taxes, to care about them?

Getting people involved
One way to get people caring about natural resources, is by building partnerships. For example, because of my membership on the Board of Intown Manchester, a group mostly made up of influential developers, I connected with the president of Families in Transition, which provides temporary housing for homeless families, and we’ve begun working on several different landscaping projects with the residents.

Another contact, a local developer, approached me a couple weeks ago at Intown Manchester’s annual meeting. He’d heard that I was the person to talk with about putting plants on his roof. Installing a “greenroof” in Manchester is a goal I have been working on for the past four years!

Cedar Street landscaping: participation by community members generates long-term pride
I’ve found it’s important to involve as many people as possible from the beginning of the project. A great example of this is seen at the townhouses on Cedar Street. Back in 1995, I began working with Manchester Neighborhood Housing Services, which provides housing for low-income families. Working with the residents of new townhouses we helped develop a landscape plan, then plant and maintain the landscaping.

If you drive by today, 11 years later, you’ll still see the pride these residents have in their landscapes, because they created them and continue to watch over them.

As a result of the neighborhood pride that developed, the Manchester Police reported that the number of calls in the Cedar Street neighborhood dropped in one year from more 800 to just 64, a fact featured on ABC National News highlighting how trees benefit people by helping reduce crime.

The Pine Street Community Garden
This project grew literally from the rubble of an old garage foundation. Working together with community members and AmeriCorps volunteers, we developed the plans, gathered the materials, and built the Center City’s first community garden, which now serves several multicultural families.

Extension educator Julia Steed Mawson now oversees the garden. Julia brought in the 4-H Green Thumb Team, whose members grow food for the Salvation Army’s Kid’s Café, which serves hot meals daily to many children who would otherwise go without. The Green Thumb Team also grows food for the N.H. Food Bank. Through many partnerships, the garden has grown over the years and has become a keystone in the Center City.

Community transforms site of a former crack house into a park
A vacant lot on Cedar Street was a former crack house site. Residents of Cedar Street remember how afraid they were. According to resident Cathy Howland, “[The crack house] was only about six feet from our apartment. Its windows were aligned with ours, so we could see the drug dealers and they could see us. We couldn’t let the kids outside without an adult being right there.”

Many frightening incidents occurred as people came and went at all hours of the day and night. Beyond the fear of living next to drug dealers, residents had to live with the huge neighborhood eyesore of the house and yard, with trash everywhere and the house itself beyond repair. It was a wonderful day in the neighborhood when Manchester Neighborhood Housing Services purchased the property and took the crack house down.

The community came together to plan and build a new park. The residents helped create the landscape plan, and, in two days, more than 40 people including N.H. Community Tree Stewards, transformed the vacant lot into a beautiful green space. Neighborhood children dug holes, planted shrubs, and spread mulch. Finding the remains of the old foundation while digging, one of the kids shouted, “This used to be part of the crack house. Let’s get it out of here!”

Mary Tebo, UNH Cooperative Extension Community Forestry Educator
This is an  edited version of the speech Mary gave in accepting the 2006 Maynard and Audrey Heckel Extension Fellowship.

As New Hampshire begins drying out from recent record floods and taking stock of damaged homes, businesses, roads, and agricultural plantings, public officials have issued a number of flood-related warnings and information bulletins.

Over a week after the flooding, many people whose homes were damaged have not yet been allowed to return and survey the damage. In the Goffstown area, about 50 families were evacuated and still haven't returned to assess and start cleaning up. State and federal health and emergency officials are working hard to provide information.

To learn more:

• Testing and protecting drinking water in a flood aftermath (bulletin contains other important safety information)
• Risks from household hazardous materials in flood-damaged buildings
• Dealing with mold
• Cleanups that might involve asbestos
• Post-flood fraud and scams alert
• Bike/walk-to-work day postponed

Click here for a complete list of flood related links.

Record rainfalls throughout southern and central New Hampshire over the weekend led Gov. John Lynch to declare a state of emergency and activate the National Guard. Forecasters predict as much as 15 inches of rain will have fallen in some parts of the state by Monday night.

Hundreds of highways have washed out or flooded, many residents have left homes flooded or threatened by rising rivers, streams, and vulnerable dams. Hundreds of schools and businesses have closed. Homeowners and business owners by the thousands continue to pump water from flooding basements.

Office of Emergency Management spokesperson Jim Van Dongen says his department strongly suggests that residents curtail all non-essential highway travel. “With more than 800 roads out in eight counties, it just makes sense,” he says.

Department of Environmental Services officials warn residents to stay out of flood waters, which may contain toxins and harmful bacteria, to wear protective gear if you must travel through flood waters, to disinfect items that come in contact with flood water (Use 1/4 cup bleach to one gallon of water as a disinfectant.), and to test the water in shallow wells that have flooded before using it for drinking or bathing.

We’ve assembled this list of online information resources and will continue adding to it as we get more information.

I’m wanted in four states…got my new driver’s license and a sweet new pickup. V8 baby – 500 horsepower…and the best part is, it’s all free, yeah, for me at least.

Recognize these words from a popular commercial? It’s one of a series of ads promoting a new service addressing identity theft at a major bank. The viewer is immediately captivated by the words, coming from an older lady as she cleans her pool, but spoken in the rough-sounding voice of a thug. The thug finishes with a ghoulish laugh, as the words “Ruth F., Identity Theft Victim” flash on the screen.

Identity theft. Should you be worried about it? You may have seen a brochure from your bank, or an article in a current magazine warning you about privacy risks in an increasingly technological society. But did you read them?

Maybe you did after seeing the series of commercials mentioned earlier. The ads effectively convey the message that no one is safe from identity theft. Victims include people of any age, socioeconomic status and race.

The fastest-growing white collar crime

Identity theft is the fastest growing white collar crime in the United States. A survey commissioned by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that an estimated 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years. Ten million occurred in the last year alone.

Identity theft is a serious crime that has caused victims to spend months or years—and lots of money—to clear their name, correct erroneous information and clean up their credit record.

Although identity theft victims are usually not liable for the debts the thief has incurred, they often lose job opportunities, are refused loans or housing. Some have even been arrested for crimes they did not commit.

This is why the FTC has chosen the theme Identity Theft: When Fact Becomes Fiction as their focus for this year’s National Consumer Protection Week, February 6-12.

According to the FTC, identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information, such as your name, Social Security number ( SSN), credit card number or other identifying information, without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.

How does this happen?

It doesn’t seem possible, but it’s easier than you might think. If an identity thief can obtain your personal information, he or she can use it to call your credit card issuer and change the mailing address on the card, open a new credit card account or bank account in your name, drain your bank account, take out a loan, even buy a car or a house.

According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, thieves obtain your SSN, driver's license, credit card numbers and other pieces of identification, in a variety of ways, which include:

• "Dumpster diving" in trash bins for unshredded credit card and loan applications and documents containing SSNs.
• Stealing mail from unlocked mailboxes to obtain newly issued credit cards, bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, investment reports, insurance statements, benefits documents, or tax information. Even locked mailboxes may not stop a determined thief.
• Accessing your credit report fraudulently, for example, by posing as an employer, loan officer, or landlord.
• Obtaining names and SSNs from personnel or customer files in the workplace.
• "Shoulder surfing" at ATM machines and phone booths in order to capture PIN numbers.
• Finding identifying information on Internet sources, via public records sites and fee-based information broker sites.

Protecting yourself

These actions will help prevent thieves from using your identity:

• Minimize the amount of information a thief has access to. Don’t carry more credit cards than you need to, don’t carry Social Security cards, birth certificate or passport.
• Don’t carry other items with your SSN on them unless you need them that day.
• Reduce the amount of personal information that is “out there.” Remove your name from marketing lists of major credit card bureaus, opt-out of the sale or sharing of your information when offered to you, sign up for the FTC Do Not Call Registry.
• Never give out your SSN, credit card number or other personal information over the phone, mail or internet unless you initiated the contact and you have a trusted business relationship.
• Order a copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three national credit bureaus.
• Ask about information security procedures and safeguards at your workplace.
• Place passwords on your bank, credit card and phone accounts, but don’t use options such as birthdate, pet name, maiden name, or last four digits of social security number.

Are the businesses you work for or shop at exposing you to a risk of identity theft?

This handy online checklist will help you evaluate whether your employer, the enterprises you do business with, and the businesses you patronize take all the important steps to reduce the risk of identity theft among their employees and customers.

If you do become a victim

If you fall victim to identity theft, take immediate action. Right away, contact the fraud units for the three credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. As of April 2003, if you notify one bureau, it will notify the other two. Ask the agency to flag your file with a fraud alert.

The FTC suggests you take the following initial steps:

• Place a fraud alert on your credit report and review your credit report.
• Close any accounts that have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
• File a report with your local police or the police in the community where the identity theft took place.
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

Click here for identity theft resources

by Karen Blass, UNH Cooperative Extension Family & Consumer Resources Educator, Rockingham County.

From Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day, we Americans spike our long winter darkness with holidays, bowl games and other special events marked by feasting, food exchanges and a general celebration of abundance.

Yet, according to a report released November 19 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last year 36.3 million Americans either went hungry or reported uncertainty about getting enough to eat at some point during the year. This figure includes 13 million children.

By national standards, New Hampshire , with the fourth-highest median household income in the nation, has a relatively low rate of hunger. Yet our state’s affluence masks the harsh truth that tens of thousands of Granite State residents can’t stretch their incomes to meet the basic food requirements for healthy living.

Hunger and food insecurity in New Hampshire

Although we don’t have hard data on hunger and food insecurity in New Hampshire , we can gauge its incidence through related indicators like these:

• A U.S. Census Bureau report issued last August estimated that 96,000 New Hampshire people lived below the federal poverty guidelines ($18, 850 for a family of four) at some point during 2003, up from 79, 200 in 2002 and 63,300 in 2000. Most of these people rely on a combination of government food assistance programs and emergency food providers to get enough to eat.
  
  
• The 2003 USDA Household Food security survey revealed that 45 percent of households reporting hunger or food insecurity have incomes above 130 percent of official poverty levels, meaning they probably don’t quality for federal food assistance programs.
  
  “We have real concerns for the thousands of people who earn just enough that they don’t qualify for food stamps and other government assistance programs,” says Val Long, Nutrition Coordinator for UNH Cooperative Extension’s Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program.
  
  “Steep increases in the costs of housing, fuel, transportation and healthcare, as well as food, haven’t been matched by increases in wages. A lot of working families have begun depending on emergency food pantries to feed their families. The emergency food system was intended to be just that: help for temporary emergencies. But people have begun relying on it chronically. That shouldn’t happen in the United States . It’s not an acceptable way to ensure that people are getting a nutritionally adequate diet that keeps them active and healthy.”
  
  
• In 2000, 36,266 New Hampshire residents received food stamps. By 2004, that number had risen to 48,449.
  
  
• Survey results released in December by the National Low Income Housing Coalition indicate that to afford the average two-bedroom apartment (including utilities) in New Hampshire , a worker must earn $16.75 per hour, more than three times the federal minimum wage.
  
  
• By the end of 2004, the New Hampshire Food Bank will have distributed about four million pounds of food to nonprofit and emergency food providers throughout New Hampshire —a million more pounds than last year, according to executive director Melanie Gosselin. “In one year, we expanded membership from 240 agencies to 342,” she says.

New Hampshire ’s emergency food providers

The federal government’s nutrition safety net, which includes the Food Stamp Program, the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC) and the School Meals Program, has traditionally built nutritious food and nutrition education into their programs.

In recent years, the net has frayed. Many low- and moderate-income people with incomes too high to qualify for food stamps and other government assistance programs can’t keep up with the escalating costs of housing, home heating fuel, and transportation. Responding to an increase in need, the state’s charitable emergency food system has grown dramatically in recent years.

Founded in 1984 as a program of Catholic Charities, the New Hampshire Food Bank serves as a centralized warehouse and distribution center for a network of nonprofit daycare centers, senior feeding sites, emergency food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

The New Hampshire Food Bank maintains an affiliation with a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks and perishable food “rescue operations” called America ’s Second Harvest . The nationwide organization takes advantage of its collective buying and bargaining power, and today serves local agencies that feed needy people in every county in the U.S.

The New Hampshire Food Bank receives food from grocery stores, wholesalers, farmers and individuals, as well as cash donations from individuals, organizations and a variety of fundraising activities. The Food Bank requires its members to acquire nonprofit status, have refrigeration if they plan to store perishable foods, and undergo periodic inspections that ensure safe food handling practices. Agencies preparing food onsite must have state-certified commercial kitchens.

Some emergency food facilities offer classes that promote nutrition and cooking skills to the agencies and their clients. For example, a nationwide program called Operation Frontline, pairs nutritionists with chefs from local restaurants to teach cooking skills and nutrition to clients of emergency food pantries. UNH Cooperative Extension Nutrition Connections staff in Hillsborough and Rockingham counties have collaborated with Operation Frontline to teach classes which deliver nutrition education to Food Stamp clients.

In addition, some food pantries provide other services that range from cash assistance to meet emergency needs for housing, fuel, clothing, and medicine, to job training and health screenings and clinics.

Observations from the field

Persis Gow, the bookkeeper for St. Paul ’s Church Food Pantry in Concord , has noticed an increase in demand on the pantry in recent years and months. “In January 2004, we served people from 25 surrounding towns. In November, we had people from 30 towns,” she says. “In 2001 we added 363 new families—people we’d never seen before. Already this year we’ve had 400 new families, with December figures not in yet. In 2001 we served 3688 children under 18; in 2004, to date, we’ve had 4228.

Gow says people who visit the pantry include elders, single parents, and people with disabilities. “But lately, I’ve noted an increase in the number of traditional, stable, working families—mother, father and children, all with the same last name,” she says. “That’s new.”

Dot Hunt has served as treasurer of St. John’s St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in Concord for the past 22 years. “There are at least 27 food pantries here in Merrimack County , and we’re all busy. Our numbers are up, with 400 new families this year. As many as 1200 individuals pass through each month,” she says. “We’re seeing more elderly, more working families and—what’s new for us—more single young people. Sometimes three or four single people will be living together and one will come in to get food for them all.”

Hunt says the pantry also provides emergency help with rent, medicine, fuel and clothing. “Usually I get about 12-14 requests a month for help with fuel and rent. But one month not too long ago, I had 60 calls. We’re seeing a lot of people facing eviction.”

2005 hunger study

In 2005, the N.H. Food Bank will participate in the Hunger in America Survey that America ’s Second Harvest conducts every four years. “This will be the first time New Hampshire has joined the survey,” says Erin Chamberlain, the N.H. Food Bank’s program services director. The two-part study will collect demographic data from face-to-face interviews with clients of emergency food pantries and soup kitchens, as well as from a survey of provider agencies themselves. “It will give us hard data about who is hungry in New Hampshire and how they deal with it,” says Chamberlain. “The study will also help us learn about what our member agencies are doing for the people in need and what more we could do for [the agencies].”

If you or someone you know needs food

If you face a family food emergency, or know someone who does, find the most available source of food. Call the Nutrition Connections staff person in your county or call your town hall and ask how and where to apply for local welfare. If you have children in school, go to the school nurse for help finding out whether your children qualify for free or reduced lunches. The New Hampshire Assistance Handbook offers sections on eligibility and how to sign up for food stamps WIC, and other government assistance programs.

If you want to help

Besides educating yourself about the extent of hunger and food insecurity in your own community, you can also participate in a local food drive, contribute cash to the Food Bank, or volunteer your time at a food pantry or soup kitchen.

Donating directly to the N.H. Food Bank instead of purchasing food products yourself increases the buying power of your donations. “A $10 donation to the N.H. Food Bank will buy 40 meals for hungry people,” says Gosselin. “Our buying power allows us to sell food to local pantries at only 18 cents a pound.”

Since most local pantries or soup kitchens run on volunteer labor, citizens can also consider donating time. Call to find out if an emergency food provider near you (link to list of emergency food providers) needs help.

Resources 

Nutrition Connections
This list connects you with UNH Cooperative Extension county staff who provide nutrition education to low-income individuals and families in New Hampshire. Staff can help connect you with emergency food resources.

New Hampshire Food Bank
New Hampshire ’s only food bank; warehouses and distributes food to a statewide network of 342 member agencies.

America ’s Second Harvest - America’s Food Bank Network
A nationwide network of more than 200 food banks and “food rescue” operations.

Serve New England
An “alternative to food shopping” that offers families of any income level deep discounts on major brand name foods in exchange for at least two hours of volunteer service each month. New Hampshire has 35 pick-up locations. You can buy a package of frozen meats, fresh fruits and vegetables at about half the grocery store price. No limit on how much food you can buy. Call 1-800-603-4855 for nearest location.

New Hampshire Assistance Handbook

Published in 2003, but updated for 2004, the handbook contains a listing of critical resources for people in need, including food assistance, shelters for the homeless and for battered women, nutrition education, legal assistance, fuel assistance, social services, and much more.

Kids Café
A service of the Salvation Army. Serves dinner to needy Manchester children, followed by an hour of crafts or games, four nights a week

The Paradox of Hunger and Obesity in America
Obese, but hungry and malnourished? This paper, issued jointly by Brandeis University ’s Center on Hunger and Poverty and the Food Research & Action Center , helps explain the apparent paradox of how dual threats of hunger and obesity can co-exist in individuals and families.

By Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension writer/editor, and Helen Costello, Food Security Coordinator

See also: "It can happen to anybody."

After breakfast, she
Sends me outside to harvest
Poems from the land.

This poem introduces Jack Kraichnan’s just-published book of short poems, Winter to Winter: a year of seasonal change in the Monadnock foothills (Snow Brook Press, 2005).

Trained as a naturalist, Kraichnan takes his daily exercise outdoors and on foot. In late 2002, he committed himself to producing a certain number of poems during each walk, using the three-line, 5-7-5-syllable meter of traditional Japanese haiku as his form. Winter to Winter incorporates the best of the haiku Kraichnan wrote during and after walking the same five-mile loop through Dublin from mid-December, 2002, to mid-December, 2003.

Kraichnan says he didn’t intend to write a book, but simply to use haiku as an interior discipline to complement the physical discipline of walking. “I wrote the poems as a sort of journal,” he says. “They contain both what I observed and what I associated with those observations. Diane [Kraichnan’s wife] read them, liked them, and organized them to create the book.”

Kraichnan encountered all types of weather during his year of daily walks. “In our increasingly developed and engineered world, weather is one of the last forces of Nature left wild,” he writes. “Being outside in it for a year was a gift.”

Writing within the rigorous demands of the haiku format “forced me to distil my thoughts,” writes Kraichnan. “I was rigorously honest in recording what my senses perceived, and resisted altering reality even slightly to accommodate an easy turn of phrase.”

On their surface, haiku report some observation or experience of nature. The best of them invoke deep emotional and spiritual resonances that readers experience directly, without the mediation of figurative or explicitly symbolic expressions. My favorite from Kraichnan’s Winter to Winter collection:

Beneath snow and ice
In dark of pond’s still water
Turtles are waiting.

I love this idea of combining physical activity with a writing discipline as Kraichnan has done. Over nearly four decades, including 18 years as a serious competitive triathlete, I’ve walked, hiked, run, biked, snowshoed, and swum thousands of miles, almost all of it across the familiar woods and roadways near my home, in the little pond just outside my kitchen window, or in half-acre vegetable garden I’ve planted, tended and harvested for 37 seasons.

Like Kraichnan, I’ve learned that our “seasons are not as clearly defined as I had thought,” with each season offering as many micro-seasons as I have encounters with the world outside my walls.

I’ve also learned that the same piece of terrain never looks sounds, feels, or smells the same from one encounter to the next. The feeling of the ground under foot or wheel changes perceptibly as the seasons advance. The scents on the air change, as frozen ground softens to mud, lilacs bloom, a neighbor mows his lawn, a dead woodchuck rots by the roadside in the August heat, fall leaves accumulate, a hard frost stiffens the ground. On my walk today, I heard the groans of frozen trunks and limbs in the winter woods and the rattle of beech leaves still hanging on their branches; tomorrow I’ll hear the whisper of uncut hay in the field, the voices of crows in my compost pile, and the squeals of children playing tag in my neighbor’s yard.

Like Kraichnan’s, my outdoor excursions have provoked me to write many poems, most of them marking rites of passage for me and for loved ones.

When my daughter turned 18 and left home for college, I presented her with a poem titled Rock and a small rock I picked up in our backyard vegetable garden to go with the poem. I spent three months writing Rock, laboring over each word and image, in part because I wanted my child to remember where she came from, but mostly because I needed work through my own grief and summon the considerable strength I needed to let go.

It snowed the day I received Jack’s book in the mail. Returning home from a long walk, I went to the edge of my small pond. A rim of ice had formed around the edges. A sparrow flew down as if to land, then flew away, leaving me with this poem:

First snow dusts thin ice
Of backyard pond, too thin
For that small sparrow.

Kraichnan writes in his preface, “I offer this book to those who may be trapped inside too often.”
Getting outside to exercise and explore can open us to new awareness of body, mind, and spirit.

Making poems about those excursions involves another level of “getting outside.” Committing to the discipline of putting words on paper helps the poet escape the received notions and old frames of reference that also keep us trapped inside.

Yesterday turned cold, windy, and sunless. I took a lunchtime run up Route 4, and came home with this poem:

Dry beech leaf rattling
Across dead, frozen asphalt
Takes wing on the wind.

By Peg Boyles, UNH Cooperative Extension Writer/Editor

This spring about a thousand New Hampshire landowners will slice the newly-defrosted ground to create thousands of welcoming holes for tree and shrub seedlings bought from the State Forest Nursery.

Howie Lewis, nursery forester, calls his nearly 40-acre nursery one of New Hampshire’s best- kept secrets. Lewis says the nursery produces a unique product. “We provide something nobody else does – tree and shrub seedlings native to New Hampshire, with seeds picked from specimens grown right here in the state. When you buy from the state forest nursery, you know the plant is suited to grow here.”

In operation in Boscawen since 1910, the nursery grows more than 50 species of trees and shrubs for reforestation, Christmas trees, and wildlife, and sells them at affordable prices. Seedlings, sold on a “first come-first served basis” include conifers, such as white, red and Scotch pine, Norway, blue, red, and white spruce, concolor, balsam, fraser and douglas fir, and hemlock.

The nursery offers many other species, including arrow-wood, crabapple, fragrant sumac, grapes, highbush cranberry, dogwood, rose, nannyberry, beach plum, elderberry, winterberry holly, bayberry, hazelnut, red oak, cedar, sugar maple and white ash. Special “packages,” each containing an assortment of 25 shrubs and/or trees, include a Christmas tree sampler and special wildlife-and-songbird, wetlands, native species, and winter survival packages.

Besides being one of his best sellers, balsam fir is Lewis’ personal favorite. “I’ve worked with this species the most. I follow seedlings from the parents in the seed orchard through to watching them grow in the seedbed.” Balsam fir is a customer favorite because it has that classic evergreen smell. Seedlings sell out, so nursery staff suggest you order early.

Ordering starts in January and ends March 30. “When you are in the nursery business, spring starts a different time each year,” says Lewis, “So we ship to a county pickup point in late April or early May, whenever the seedlings can be lifted from the ground.” Customers receive a card in the mail announcing the pick up dates. “We work throughout the year getting ready for the spring shipment and hope we have many new customers this year.”

Lewis is enthusiastic about his trees and shrubs and hopes “New Hampshire’s best kept secret” is known by all.

By Karen Bennett, UNH Cooperative Extension Forest Resources Specialist

More information:

• To receive a catalog, contact the N.H. State Nursery, N.H. Division of Forests and Lands, P.O. Box 1856, Concord, NH 03302-1856, or call 603-271-3456.
• View the State Nursery catalog and order online.
• Planting and Care of Tree Seedlings
• Establishing the Christmas Tree Plantation

Are you interested in helping protect New Hampshire's wildlife? Are you an enthusiastic person, involved in your community? Do you manage your own land to help wildlife? Are you concerned about the loss of wildlife habitat in New Hampshire?

The New Hampshire Coverts Project is looking for applicants to attend the eleventh annual Coverts training, to be held in Hancock, September 7-10, 2005. Anyone with an interest in wildlife and land stewardship who is willing to commit 40 hours of volunteer time is invited to apply. The training is free.

The program has successfully trained more than 220 Coverts Cooperators who live in more than 100 communities throughout the state. Landowners, conservation commissioners, business people, land trust volunteers, doctors, teachers, and writers have all participated in the program over the years. These volunteers are making a difference for New Hampshire's wildlife and their habitats by managing habitat, promoting a land stewardship ethic, initiating community conservation planning, and helping to protect land.

UNH Cooperative Extension coordinates the program in partnership with N.H. Fish and Game, The Ruffed Grouse Society, and N.H. Division of Forests and Lands. For an application, phone Malin Ely Clyde at 862-2166 or email. The deadline for submitting applications is June 1, 2005.

To learn more about the Coverts Project and the training workshop, visit NH Coverts Project website.

Are you frustrated with the way your town is growing, losing its fields and forestland?

According to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, New Hampshire is losing 12,000 to 15,000 acres of open land each year to development. Some towns are slowing that trend by voting land conservation bonds at their town meetings, buying up open space through public taxpayer dollars.

Last spring, voters in 29 communities across the state considered proposals for bond issues to finance land conservation projects. According to the Center for Land Conservation Assistance, 13 envisioned borrowing at least $1 million to preserve undeveloped parcels of land.

A UNH survey conducted in 12 of those 29 communities examined why voters supported or opposed local open space preservation initiatives. The towns surveyed included Auburn, Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Hollis, Newington, Barrington, Durham, Errol, Greenland, Hopkinton and Rye, whose preservation bond proposals ranged from $500,000 in Newington to $5 million each in Hollis, Hopkinton and Rye.

Out of the nearly 500 respondents, the number one reason people voted for the conservation bonds was because of town growth and the need for preserving more open space. Other reasons included preserving the rural character of the town, saving forest land and keeping property taxes down. Those who voted against the bond cited its high cost and the fact that taxes were already too high.

When asked to name the biggest issue or problem facing their town, 41 percent overwhelming cited growth/sprawl/lack of open space highest. Taxes came in second, with 30 and 25 percent of respondents citing schools/quality of education.

UNH Cooperative Extension teamed with the Center for Integrative Regional Problem Solving (CIRPS) to help New Hampshire’s rapidly growing communities. With information from community decision-makers and active citizens across the state, the team compiled a list of the top 10 issues facing rapidly growing communities in New Hampshire:

• Determining economic impacts of land use choices, including cost/access to services, taxation and financing education.
• Preserving New England character, including a sense of community.
• Exploring growth management strategies and model ordinances for natural resource protection: what works, what does not.
• Conserving the best open space through non-regulatory options.
• Sustaining the economic base without losing the quality of life.
• Creating affordable housing with developer incentives.
• Creating adequate transportation services and systems.
• Ensuring surface and groundwater protection.
• Encouraging collaboration within communities and within the region.
• Providing leadership training to community decision-makers.

The CIRPS/Extension team is developing an online clearinghouse to provide resources to New Hampshire residents and community leaders with an eventual goal of making it a regional clearinghouse, including southern Maine and northern Massachusetts.

The site will include links to organizations that provide materials and support to communities, links to New Hampshire communities that have developed innovative ways of dealing with rapid growth, and a wide range of academic and scientific research papers on the topics.

UNH Cooperative Extension offers many programs that help citizens and local officials try to deal with the costs of increasing sprawl and growth. These include the Community Profile, a process which brings citizens together to envision and plan the future of their community, and the Community Conservation Assistance Program, which pulls together groups of citizens to work on special land and water conservation projects.

UNH Cooperative Extension also provides support and technical help in many areas, including programs that provide education about land conservation, developing trail systems, determining the cost and protection of open space, water quality monitoring and protection, managing community forests and using geographic information systems (GIS).

For more information about what UNH Cooperative Extension is doing to support New Hampshire’s communities, visit Extension’s website at http://ceinfo.unh.edu or one of these specific program links:

• Extension’s Communities Program
• Community Conservation Assistance Program
• Community Forests

By Mi