- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Do you have an opinion on how California wildlands are managed? UC Cooperative Extension specialists Safeeq Khan, Tapan Pathak and Toby O'Geen are conducting a need assessment survey about land management and ecosystem climate solutions.
Khan, Pathak and O'Geen are part of the Innovation Center for Ecosystem Climate Solutions (CECS), a state-funded collaboration between eight California research institutions, including UC ANR, working to develop innovative solutions to managing California's wildlands to reduce negative impacts of drought and climate change. Their goal is to identify land management practices that simultaneously enhance carbon sequestration, reduce wildfire severity, protect watersheds, and increase ecological and community resilience.
Khan would like your help in identifying problems and issues like wildfire and water supply, multiple benefits and beneficiaries of wildlands management, data and information gaps, and major implementation barriers.
To help the research team better understand stakeholder needs and develop data/information solutions for active ecosystem management, please take the survey at https://ucmerced.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8ptCWlrQBTILyAd. It should take about 30 minutes to complete.
Please feel free to share the survey with your colleagues. To get more involved in the project, contact the team at wildlandsurvey@ess.uci.edu.
The project is funded by the Strategic Growth Council of California.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The 8th California Oak Symposium is scheduled to be held March 22-25, 2021, at Embassy Suites, San Luis Obispo. The theme for the conference is “Sustaining Oak Woodlands Under Current and Future Conditions.”
Presented by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the 8th California Oak Symposium is intended for anyone involved in research, education, management and conservation of California's oak woodlands. Participants may include foresters, range managers, tribes, arborists, landowners, community groups, land trusts and policymakers.
UC ANR colleagues are invited to share their oak-related work. To propose an oral presentation or poster for consideration, please submit an abstract at http://ucanr.edu/8thoakabstracts by Aug. 10.
View the symposium agenda at http://ucanr.edu/files/331101.docx.
A Symposium Planning Committee and the UC ANR Program Support Unit are organizing the symposium and monitoring the new coronavirus (COVID-19) conditions so conference details may change.
“We will go virtual if COVID-19 regulations are still in place in March,” said Bill Tietje, UC Cooperative Extension specialist and chair of the planning committee.
Registration will open in the fall. For more information, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/oaksymposium or contact Tietje at tietje@berkeley.edu.
Every Tuesday during the month of August, UC ANR leaders will be hosting two-hour online meetings to share their draft 5-year goals and get your input into the ANR Strategic Plan Refresh 2020-2025.
Teams of goal owners will review challenges we face, briefly share accomplishments to date, and present draft strategies for the future. They want to hear what you think may be missing and your ideas on how to shape the future of ANR. There will be breakout groups to provide the opportunity for you to talk with colleagues and submit your ideas to inform the final ANR strategic plan.
See the table below with specific dates for certain topics and draft goals – and sign up!
All UC ANR staff and academics – including campus-based AES faculty and CE specialists – are invited.
Register at http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=31683.
Sessions are limited to 1,000 people per the Zoom meeting license. If you have constraints joining by Zoom, please talk to your supervisor and strategize how the local office/REC can help accommodate you.
Date/ Time |
Topic |
Presenters |
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Aug. 4 10 a.m. – 12 noon |
Increasing Program Resources · Goal 9: Generate Revenue and Optimize Resource Deployment · Goal 10: Expand and Diversify Fund Development · Goal 11: Improve Efficiency and Strengthen Infrastructure · Goal 12: Strengthen Communication and Advocacy
|
Tu Tran, Associate Vice President - Business Operations Lorna Krkich, Development Services Executive Director Linda Forbes, Strategic Communications Director Anne Megaro, Government and Community Relations Director |
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Aug. 11 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. |
Strengthening Partnerships · Goal 1: Strengthen Research and Extension Partnerships · Goal 3: Build Sustainable Economies for Working Landscapes · Goal 4: Scale-up the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program
|
Wendy Powers, Associate Vice President - Programs Glenda Humiston, Vice President Gabe Youtsey, Chief Innovation Officer |
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Aug. 18 10 a.m. – |
Fostering a Positive Work Environment · Goal 6: Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion · Goal 7: Recruit, Develop and Retain People · Goal 8: Support Volunteerism
|
John Fox, Executive Director Human Resources Missy Gable, UC Master Gardener Statewide Program Director Gemma Miner, Academic Coordinator for Volunteer Engagement Bethanie Brown, Director, Human Resources |
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Aug. 25 1 p.m. – 3 p.m. |
Expanding Virtual Reach · Goal 2: Increase UC ANR's Virtual Reach · Goal 5: Modernize Digital Information Delivery System |
Mark Bell, Vice Provost of Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs Linda Forbes, Director of Strategic Communications |
UC ANR has been using a web-based daily “clearance to work survey” to ensure that employees who are working onsite or engaged in in-person field work, research, or extension activities are free of COVID-19 symptoms. An offline or paper version of the survey is also available for volunteers or employees who cannot access the online survey. Symptom screening is a statewide recommendation for all employers and is required by UC guidance for campuses and ANR locations that have personnel working onsite. The UC Symptom Screening Task Force guidance also states that arrangements must be made to require the same or equivalent screening not only of students, academics, and staff but also guests, contractors, vendors, and members of the public who are permitted access to UC facilities.
To comply with this UC systemwide guidance and to increase the protection of our employees, beginning August 3, all visitors to UC ANR facilities must also complete a Visitor Clearance Survey prior to entry. Only visitors who receive a “Cleared to Enter” result will be allowed access. Visitors who are denied entry should be provided information about other ways to interact with UC ANR remotely, such as information available on websites, scheduling a phone consultation, video meetings, etc.
When visitors from a UC campus or vendors whose employer has a symptom screening process can demonstrate that they have already passed their institution's screening, those results will be acceptable to enter the UC ANR facility. Additionally, for UCCE offices, a County's symptom screening process will be acceptable to enter the UC ANR spaces.
To maintain privacy, UC ANR personnel will not record or retain the responses of any person's Visitor Clearance Work Survey, but will only keep a record of the final survey result, i.e.: “Cleared to Enter,” or “Stay Home,” using a daily visitor log or sign-in sheet to record survey clearance status.
The UC ANR Visitor Clearance Survey and additional instructions and details about the survey are posted on the UC ANR COVID-19 webpage: http://ucanr.edu/covid19 under “Standards for Resuming In-Person Activities.”
/span>- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety is seeking research and outreach proposals on a wide range of topics that address occupational health and safety in agriculture in Arizona, California, Hawaii and/or Nevada.
- Small Grant Program funding is for the 2020–2021 academic year. Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars may request up to $10,000. Faculty may request up to $30,000. Proposals are due on or before Aug. 21, 2020, 5 p.m. PT.
- Outreach and Education funding is open to faculty, Ph.D. students or postdoctoral scholars, Cooperative Extension specialists and farm advisors and non-profit organizations. Funding requests may be submitted for up to $10,000; most awards will be $5,000 to $7,500. Proposals are due on or before Sept. 25, 2020, 5 p.m. PT.
Please share with interested parties and email aghealth@ucdavis.edu with any questions.