After three years of limited hiring due to budget constraints, the University of California's Agriculture and Natural Resources has announced it will release 10 UC Cooperative Extension positions for recruitment.
UC ANR is home to the county-based UC Cooperative Extension, Integrated Pest Management, Master Gardener and 4-H Youth Development and other programs.
The new UC Cooperative Extension positions include:
- Plant Pathology Area Advisor, Santa Cruz County
- Soils and Irrigation Advisor, Kern County
- Urban Agriculture/Small Farms Area Advisor, San Bernardino County
- Community Nutrition & Innovative Technologies Specialist, UC Davis
- Forest and Fuels Management Specialist, UC Berkeley
- Subtropical Crops Pathology Specialist, UC Riverside
- Diversified Agricultural Systems Area Advisor, Lake County
- Forestry and Natural Resources Area Advisor, Sutter-Yuba counties
- 4-H Youth Development Advisor, San Mateo-San Francisco counties
- Integrated Vineyard Systems Area Advisor, Hopland Research and Extension Center
The county listed beside the advisor title is where the office for the employee will be located. All of the UC Cooperative Extension Advisor positions will serve multiple counties.
Last week, the state restored UC ANR's budget to pre-COVID levels of FY 2019-20 and provided a 5% increase plus an additional $32 million in ongoing funding, bringing total state support to $107.9 million for the division. Over the past 20 years, UC ANR had seen its budget decrease by almost 50% when adjusted for inflation.
“This budget increase is transformational,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources. “It will allow us to rebuild UC Cooperative Extension's boots-on-the-ground to help Californians cope with wildfire, drought, climate adaptation and economic development among other issues.”
Twenty UC Cooperative Extension positions have been designated as critically urgent to fill. To avoid overwhelming UC ANR's Human Resources staff, the other 10 positions of the 20 will be released in late September as they ramp up hiring for future recruitment.
“We look forward to releasing additional positions for recruitment – both academic and program support members – throughout the next several months,” said Humiston.
“We are extremely grateful to Governor Newsom, the Legislature and especially Senator John Laird, who championed the budget increase, and look forward to working with our community partners to leverage these resources.”