- Author: Wendy Powers
I saw a message on my LinkedIn account from Bill Frost congratulating me on my second anniversary at UC ANR. Normally when I see Bill he asks me if I am still having fun. The truth? I'm having so much fun in this position, I think I must be doing it wrong. What's not to like? For example:
Recently, Kathy Nolan shared that the Q318 Quarterly Award Update from UCOP showed for the first three quarters of the 17-18 fiscal year compared to the first three quarters of the 16-17 fiscal year, ANR increased awards at ANR by 16.7%. Congratulations to all of the contract and grant awardees! And to keep the momentum going, the Office of Contracts and Grants is offering a grant writers workshop to help us all write winning grant applications. Be sure to register today!
While in Guam, Dan Munk, on behalf of CASI, received the Western Extension Directors Association Award of Excellence. Congratulations to the CASI team! Overall, the meeting was far better than I had anticipated, primarily because our hosts devoted much effort to ensuring that we learned about the Pacific Island communities throughout the week. One of many sessions was about invasive species to the islands, including the brown tree snake who has eliminated over 7 species of song birds thus leaving the forests on Guam silent. To hunt out snakes at ports, Jack Russell Terriers are trained to find the venomous predator. We had a chance to see one of the 17 units in action. A nice change of pace from the customary leadership meeting.
When I get back to California, I spend my first 2 days back with the Central Sierra offices. It will be my first trip to those offices. And while Scott is on sabbatical leave, I believe he is planning to join us for the visit. It will be good to hear from JoLynn how her first few weeks as the interim County Director have been.
The following day, the Peer Review Committee and the Academic Assembly Personnel Committee meet to talk and reflect on this year's merit and promotion process and consider improvements/clarifications to the e-book. I will meet with the group for about an hour and share my thoughts with them for consideration. I appreciate the fact that the process is geared towards continuous improvement as opposed to assuming that the process has run long enough that it must be perfect.
So really, what's not to like about this position? Sure, there are things that could be changed or improved. There are even things that we may lack. But as Robert Underwood, President, University of Guam told us during his keynote talk at our recent Western administrators meeting, “If you are always focused on what you don't have, you never get around to taking advantage of what you do have”. While President Underwood was speaking from the perspective of challenges that Guam faces, it's a good thought for all of us to keep in mind.
- Author: Wendy Powers
Typhoon Maria made it to Guam a day ahead of me. While I missed out on the main event of the natural disaster, I've witnessed the uprooted trees, flooding, and residual heavy rainfalls. The sun came out this morning and the Philippine Sea was calm enough for some snorkeling. The area we tried was reachable from land and, though, reported as one of the best spots on the island, it turned out to be marginally better than my pool.
While I was looking for something interesting, I had the Thai soccer team on my mind. The world is pulling for the team and coach as well as the rescuers. I'm relieved they have started the rescue as the idea that oxygen concentration in the cave was down to 15% had me particularly worried. Clearly the team's current state in the cave was undesirable and not sustainable. The desired state (rescued) is where they all need to be. But the challenge is the transition from the current state to the rescued state. It's a treacherous trip compounded by their fear, weakened state, and inability to swim. At one point, I heard talk about drugging them so that they didn't resist the rescue attempt, particularly those portions underwater through tight areas. It is human nature, I suspect, to resist rescue despite wanting to achieve that desired state.
When I was in high school and college, I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor during both summers and school years. While I was most afraid of teaching the infant classes (4 months to 2 years of age) infants were actually much easier than toddlers, youth and adults because they didn't fear the water.
Fun fact: If you gently blow in the face of an infant, they close their eyes and hold their breath. Then you can dunk them under water and push them to their parent who is standing about 4 ft away. The parent then brings the infant out of the water. The infant is surprised but not afraid and rarely cries as a result of the experience. While underwater, many infants actually move their arms, swimming.
Adults are a far different story. Drowning victims often claw and climb on their rescuers, potentially drowning the person that is trying to get them to their desired state. As a result, you often teach adults, and even teens, to swim from the deck rather than within the pool. I learned this the hard way during a high school lesson (our swim team coach had the team members teach those who couldn't swim during PE class). I will keep her name anonymous but I distinctly remember fighting to get away from her and telling her to just stand up – we were still in the shallow end of the pool.
Drugged or alert, here's hoping the rescue continues to go well and everyone stays safe! The fact that everyone is working as a team with a common goal is certainly to their advantage.
For me, the opening reception was this evening and it's a full day of meetings tomorrow and Wednesday. I suspect it will start to feel like I was drugged at times. We have some good topics on the agenda so I remain optimistic the conversations will lead us to our desired state.
- Author: Wendy Powers
If you were in the Northeast this holiday you were probably seeking a reprieve from the heat and humidity to watch the fireworks. I'm not sure the person who climbed the base of the Statue of Liberty had that in mind, but maybe. In my part of California, we couldn't have asked for better weather. Of course we had enough breeze that my eyes weren't stinging from smoke. Regardless, I passed on any firework displays and wasn't too disappointed to hear of cancellations due to fire risk.
Last week, while visiting the team in Humboldt/Del Norte Counties we had a chance to think about how fire works as a tool to protect against destructive wildfires like that raging through Yolo County. After a quick stop on the Avenue of the Giants, we headed to see the site of a prescribed fire training that Lenya and Jeff had hosted the day before for a number of volunteer fire departments. It was fascinating to learn how the training is conducted, including some opportunities to learn from mistakes. We took a look at a prescribed fire in a vineyard, intended to reduce grasshoppers and, at the same stop, had a chance to talk about sudden oak death impacts on forest health, and some of the changes that have occurred as cannabis production has increased in the area. As someone who spent a large part of my career thinking about livestock odors, I was particularly interested in hearing from the Briceland Winery vintner and Glenn McGourty about wine components. I have to say, of the wines we sampled Glenn's own Arneis that was served the night before was my favorite. In general, wine doesn't set off any fireworks for me but, I'm starting to find a few I like.
What I did enjoy were the dinner conversations where guests included a local CSA farmer, the director of the Northern California food banks, the coordinator of local farm markets, and most of the UCCE team. In particular was a conversation about including culturally relevant foods in the Master Food Preserver program offered in tribal communities, the potential that exists to further increase local food purchasing if the challenge of finding land can be addressed, and some staggering statistics about food insecurity and homelessness among seniors. The guests all had a common message about the importance of UC ANR (Cooperative Extension + research (RECs) + statewide programs) as a partner in their own efforts.
Thomas had just returned from the 4-H California Focus in Sacramento and it sounds like he plans to bring more youth in the future. And Dan is as buy as ever in his work with Sudden Oak Death. Like my last visit, I left so impressed with Yana and the team. This group really knows how to get things done. As the first Cooperative Extension office in California, and the home office of Douglas Pine who made a groundbreaking contribution in establishing the Klamath Weed Beetle in the county, this office is still ahead of the curve.
- Author: Wendy Powers
Last week we wished a number of long-time colleagues well as they set off for retirement. They will be missed and no doubt things won't quite be the same around the office. But change is inevitable and, after all, we are all working towards that day. The upside is that this week we welcome a number of new colleagues! If you happen to run into any of the following, please give them a warm welcome.
- Ksenia Krasileva is an AES researcher in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, specializing in genomics of plant disease resistance – focusing on wheat and other cereals.
- Anders Naar is an AES researcher in the Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology at UC Berkeley, studying the mechanics of gene regulation in diseases such as cancers and cardio-metabolic disorders with focus on molecular mechanisms involved in controlling the output of genes important in cholesterol and fat metabolism.
- Liliana Vega is an Assistant CE Advisor, 4-H Youth Development, based in San Luis Obispo, with programmatic responsibilities in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.
- Monique Rivera is an Assistant CE Specialist in in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside.
- Mehdi Nemati is an Assistant CE Specialist in Water Resource Economics and Policy in the School of Public Policy at UC Riverside.
- Ellen Bruno begins as a CE Specialist, Quantitative Policy Analysis, at UC Berkeley
This is a short week. Given the number of meetings on my calendar this week, I am guessing that many are taking some time away from the office. Me, too. I head out on Thursday for the summer meeting of the Western Extension Directors and the Western Ag Experiment Station Directors. The Western CARETs (Council on Agriculture, Research, Extension, and Teaching) and Western Administrative Heads (Deans of Ag colleges) are meeting as well but given that the meeting is in Guam, I'm not sure how many from UC are planning to attend. I know Dan Munk is attending to receive the WEDA Award of Excellence on behalf of the Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI). The weather promises to not only be warm but humid, too. I haven't been to Guam before and certainly wouldn't have picked July as the ideal time to go, but I am looking forward to the new experience and a few days away.
Enjoy the 4th and stay safe!
- Author: Wendy Powers
Sometimes there is no good option, a fact that has really sunken in this week. It's reminded me of the task I disliked the most while I had administrative responsibilities in a previous position – allocating the raise pool. Unit leaders were provided a fixed dollar amount in each of two pools (base increase and merit increase pools) to divide up amongst all direct reports (80+, in my case). There were rules, e.g. anyone receiving a 'meets expectation' or higher had to receive at least the mean allocation from the base pool, anyone receiving funds from the merit pool had to also receive at least the mean increase from the base pool, and no more than 10% of people could receive funds from the merit pool. I would create 6 to 8 spreadsheets of different options and not be happy with any of them. No matter which spreadsheet was deemed ‘best' the bottom line was that there wasn't enough money in either pool to really convey how valued and appreciated people were.
I had my interview today with the ANR Advisory Committee today. The topics were the risks and benefits of different governance and budget options for ANR in the future. The status quo was not an option, so in some cases there wasn't a selection of good options from which to choose – at least not without some modification to the proposed scenarios. Perhaps the options will be expanded upon a bit.
The highlight of the week has been our trip north to visit Tehama and Humboldt Counties. I never fail to learn a number of things while out on these visits. During the visit with Tehama UCCE, I even expanded my vocabulary.
Phreatophyte - a plant with deep roots like trees capable of extracting water in the vicinity of the water table.
According to Allan Fulton, this is a primary driver behind the growing interest in plant water stress sensors for managing water in orchard crops.
We had a chance to meet Ashton, a fairly new 4-H Community Education Specialist and hear about her plans for the program and goals to build the number of Emerald Stars. Ashley and Janessa gave us an overview of the nutrition program, the third largest CalFresh program in the state that is reaching 6,800 youth in schools plus an additional 5,800 people over 10 different community events. Janessa's energy is contagious and she has impressive goals laid out for the program where they adjust the program based on client needs and wants. Clearly she is always thinking about how she can do more in order to broaden the program impacts in the county. Allan talked about the mobile irrigation lab he has used with a goal of increasing efficient use of water for irrigation. It must be working because DWR reports that despite and 8% increase in acres irrigated, water use has only increased by 0.1%; that's an impressive condition change in part due to Allan's efforts. Josh taught us about Barb goatgrass as one of the biggest threats to the 1 million acres of range in Tehama County. And he shared some of the encouraging news that nitrogen application helps control Medusahead – also new information to me.
A wealth of good information was shared during our trip to Tehama UCCE. If I had to pick the most interesting, there wouldn't be anything but good options to choose from. Thanks everyone, including Cindy and Spring, for a great trip!