- Author: Judy Ludovise
Central Coast Section representative Mary Engebreth and I recently attended the 4-H Western Regional Leaders Forum in Fairbanks, Alaska. The annual conference rotates between 13 western states. Over 300 leaders attended from as far away as American Samoa. Fairbanks was sunny and cold (-2) although the locals were walking around town in shorts and flip flops. Apparently it was unseasonably warm, with the average February temperature hovering around -43.
Excellent workshops were given over the 4 days with a wide range of topics. A few of the workshops I attended were Creating Resilient Youth, Teaching to Engage Participants and Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn. This information will be shared with Sonoma County 4-H leaders at the summer annual training.
Along with a full day of workshops, the evenings were set aside for local tours. Mary and I were fortunate enough to embark on a midnight dog-sled ride under the dancing lights of the winter skies. The Aurora Borealis was out in full force. As you can see from the photos, the Northern Lights should be on everyone's bucket list. They were breathtaking, amazing, magical and awe inspiring! So beautiful that it makes you forget the cold. I could have stayed out all night watching those lights. Everyone should be so lucky.
Photos of Northern Lights were taken by a professional photographer who was with the sled ride; remaining were taken by Judy or Mary.
- Author: Karen Giovannini
UCCE Sonoma County
2015 Annual Report
We are proud of UCCE's innovative educational and research programs; along with Master Gardeners and
4-H youth development programs.
We will continue to address critical issues to maintain and increase the sustainability of local agriculture and natural resources.
We look forward to our continued partnership in the years to come and thank you for your support.
- Author: Mimi M Enright
This is a new model for how the Master Gardeners engage as we hope to share knowledge mutually and learn from each other. In fact during the first work day that we participated in, the Master Gardeners helped pull dandelion weeds and learned that they can be used for medicinal purposes!
Pictured here, at Bayer Farm on Feb. 28, is Master Gardener, Michael Knappman (far right) with Sonoma County LandPath's 'In Our Own Backyard' program counselor, Nick Whitaker along with 4th graders from a nearby school.
- Author: Karen Giovannini
From 2015 Sonoma County Harvest Fair:
Larson is working closely with Sonoma County Tourism, and her efforts are bringing more economic opportunities to local agriculture producers, making their operations more sustainable and economically viable. Her program integrates ecosystem services provided by rangelands and highlights the benefits of using grazing animals as tools to manage local landscapes. As a certified rangeland manager, she works with land managers to help them to make sound ecologic decisions about managing working landscapes for the benefit of all users. Larson is also the current principle investigator for the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher program, which is training “agropreneurs” to increase food production throughout a five county region. Larson is working to develop an incubator farm that will provide opportunities for these beginners to learn their skills and increase local food access. “Programs like this are important to combat the shrinking acreage available for growing crops and the climbing prices of farmland, particularly in Sonoma County,” says Larson."
- Author: Julia Van Soelen Kim
- Contributor: Michael Levy
It was run by researcher Michael Levy, a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis, along with Mark Lubell, an influential social network scientist at UC Davis. Levy asked participants to define sustainable agriculture by drawing "mental models" consisting of the important aspects of sustainable agriculture and how they affect each other.
Participants first constructed their own mental models electronically by creating mind maps or a web of words linked together. Then the group constructed a larger mental model together and discussed the implications. According to Levy, “the data generated will lead to research that informs UC ANR programs and advances the social science of sustainability and agriculture, and it will help us get a richer picture of how sustainable agriculture knowledge is distributed and moves through the community.”
Conceptualizing each individual's understanding of sustainable agriculture as a network of related concepts allows Levy and Lubell to apply cutting-edge network analysis tools to test hypotheses and find new insights.
