- Author: Deanne Meyer
What an exciting week! ANR advocated at the capitol Tuesday for all the great work we do. It was a day of pride as we shared our many stories with legislative staffers. We split into two groups and crossed paths occasionally. It was nice to see the capitol dome from a different vantage point. Anne Megaro and Sheron Violini did a fabulous job with the arrangements with some help from Lara Schroder. Sheron championed the team with VPHumiston, Hanif Houston (the Vine), AmiraResnick (Director of Community Nutrition and Health), Organics Advisor Stephanie Mar and 4-H Ambassador Sruthi Sudarsan. Anne's group included 4-H Ambassador Megna Nayar, Forestry Advisor Susie Kocher, Vegetable Advisor Zheng Wang, Lara and me. Thankfully there were a few breaks to catch up on emails. While Glenda worked on an important news release I continued negotiations on Specialist positions.
Wednesday we received the exciting news that Brent Hales will be our AVP beginning July 1. I'm excited to work with Brent as he assumes his new role. ANR has many moving parts and we're a bit more complex than most Land Grants where Cooperative Extension and the Ag Experiment Station reside on a single campus or at least co-locate across a system. Brent is up to the California challenge. He's excited to be joining us. I've enjoyed our interactions thus far and look forward to helping him in his transition. Please give him a warm California welcome when you see him at the conference.
We are in single digits countdown before the conference. So much organization is needed. Today PSU was in high gear just getting things done. Thank you Bridgett Alvarez, Maria Alvarez, Julia Kalika, PJ Kelly, Mariette Malessy, Kate Lyn Sutherland and Director Sherry Cooper. Kathy Eftekahri and Kathryn Stein spent the day immersed in all things conference. Katherine Hanke, Andrea Ray Ray and campus add ins (thank you Joyce Pexton and Lexi Martinez) rounded out the packing and arranging festivities. (Apologies if I've missed anyone). Getting ready for conference is similar to a big family party with all the preparations, and then it's over in the blink of an eye. Kindly join me in extending gratitude and appreciation to all who participated in the planning and execution of this conference.
The All ANR conference will be one for the records. It'll be wonderful to see new hires in person as well as old friends/colleagues. I'm especially excited to catch a minute with people who may be retiring to thank them for their contributions toANR, their county or campus, and California. Collectively we all contribute to great impacts for Californians. For the extroverts in the group this will be your energy source after a few years of zoom meetings. For my fellow introverts, please practice self-care during the conference. When the crowds and regular interaction get to be too much, take time to collect your thoughts. (It's ok to sneak into a quiet corner to regroup!)
- Author: Deanne Meyer
What a whirlwind of a week. Over two weekends while people were trying to get into the portal to get documents for search committees, prepare for the Peer Review Committee meeting this week or otherwise access information on the ANR website our IT team was burning the midnight oil. They spent much of the weekend and early part of the week switching out some of our antiquated servers and then trouble shooting since the old and new pieces weren't talking with one another. THANK YOU Sree Mada, Jaki Hsieh Wojan and their teams who figured it all out so we could access all we need! Rest assured when we're having a challenge getting to web pages this group is trying to make things better.
Last Tuesday was Ag Day at the Capitol. UC ANR was there with 4-H, Master Gardeners, the VINE and a great citrus/avocado setup. The rain was minimal during setup and then the heaven opened. It rained and it poured. Our assembly and senate members walked through the crowd and popped under the tent to get out of the elements. Anne Megaro did a great job greeting our elected officials. Strategic Communications were out in full force with Miguel Sanchez, Ethan Ireland and Ricardo Vela with cameras and Pam Kan-Rice doing interviews. Dora Garay was on social media with the quickest thumbs around. Mike Hse, Linda Forbes, Evette Kilmartin and Lara Schroder greeted visitors in the booth and shared oranges or mandarins (thank you Ashraf El Kereamy and Lindcove REC) or talked about avocados (thank you Darren Haver and South Coast REC). The 4-Hers were wonderful! They had goats and rabbits which were crowd pleasers and did many interviews and discussions with elected officials. The VINE robot drew crowds. Numerous others helped make the day fabulous. Thank you all for your incredible energy, excitement and commitment on a very rainy day!
Speaking of rain, the number of people and animals in CA displaced by our winter weather continues to climb. ANR Advisors and CES will be helping people as they work through options. Emergency preparedness for livestock and humans is a must this winter. The amount of standing water on fields is bound to impair crop harvests. Not to mention some late season cold temperatures this week. That old saying "when it rains it pours" is definitely true this year.
Last Wednesday we held Administrative Orientation in the Valley Rooms. What excitement to see so many new members of the ANR family. A big shout out to Human Resources and Program Support Unit for all their efforts to make the day enjoyable and memorable. Many tables were set up for people to meet and greet members working in different units. It was fun and informative! Speaking of new people, eight new Community Education Specialists started in February: Roxana Price, Riverside; Alfonso Mota, Central Sierra Nevada; Hannah Meyer, Nevada Placer; Kenia Estrada and Jo Reynolds, Sutter/Yuba; Elizabeth Reikowski, Statewide program operations; Mavrick Farnam, Modoc; and Reyna Yagi, Alameda County.
Here's hoping your week has sunshine!
- Author: Deanne Meyer
It's only been a week since our CARET group met in DC. THANK YOU to our CARET representatives Ismael Herrera and Mike Mellano for making time to travel to DC, walk up and down the halls of the House of Representatives as well as the Senate to meet with staff of our representatives and senators. Also joining our group were select UC employees. We visited 24 offices including the Senate and House Ag Committees. We shared our priorities for this year's appropriations as well as Farm Bill items. The conversations were filled with how valuable ANR is to communities. We discussed impacts from trained citizen scientists to identify spotted lanternfly and the importance of prescribed burn associations. It was easy to share examples of Advisors, Specialists and Community Educators helping to assess damage from fire, floods or other disasters. Impacts from statewide programs to improve lives of Californians (Master Gardener, 4-H, Community Nutrition and Health, Integrated Pest Management, etc.) were shared. After visiting two offices I sent links to the great Small Farms website with a map of California and staffing delivery footprint as well as languages served. We do incredible work that truly impacts the lives of Californians!
CARET is the Council for Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching. Some 300 people from US Universities participated. Sunday afternoon was a heart-warming tribute to Jean-Mari Peltier (may we all remember her with fondness) who received the lifetime CARET achievement award. Jean-Mari set the gold standard as an advocate for research, collaboration, joint funding of projects, use of science to answer questions, engagement, UC ANR and so much more. The Jean-Mari Peltier Endowment in support of UC ANR Strategic Priorities was established to carry-on Jean-Mari's commitment to UC ANR, science and solving problems.
Other members not included in this office visit included Divisional Dean Isgouhi Kaloshian, UCR; Government Relations, UCR Kathy Eiler; Government Relations, UCSC Loressa Uson; and Ryan Tompkins Forester and Natural Resources Advisor for Plumas, Sierra, and Lassen counties.
Thursday, Missy Gable shared with the UC Regents the impact of capacity funds (Federal dollars) in delivery of the Master Gardener Program. She zoomed into the meeting from UC DC. It was thrilling to watch Missy present right after we had visited with our representatives about the importance of capacity funds (Hatch, Smith-Lever, and McIntire Stennis).
Meanwhile, back home Anne Megaro prepared for our Ag Day at the Capitol (coming up this Tuesday).
Switching gears, let's give a warm welcome to our some of our February hires-- David Gonzalves, Area Director (Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito), Advisors Patricia Laxicki (Capitol Corridor) and Manpreet Singh (Kearney REC), Junior Specialist Alexander Mendenhall, and SRAs Margaret Gallagher, Elle Overs, and Cristian Burgos (all Orange County), Rito Medina Fresno Madera MCP, and Andrea Northup-Warner Sierra Foothill REC. We look forward to seeing your great impacts for Californians.
- Author: Wendy Powers
What a week – and it is only Tuesday! I didn't make it to the beach this past weekend and I have no immediate plans to dine in downtown Atlanta anytime soon, but I have remained busy nonetheless. Today is my ‘light' day yet it has gone by quite quickly. At present, I am listening to President Napolitano's Virtual Town Hall. Like other locations, there is discussion about resuming at-work operations and the budget impacts of COVID-19. Suffice it to say there are more questions than answers on both fronts. Similarly, there are many, many conversations going on about reopening our UC ANR offices, reopening the campuses and the uncertainties and risk/benefits of so doing.
Amidst all of the uncertainty, there continues to be so much good news! Yesterday Glenda and I met with Katherine Webb-Martinez to talk a bit about the Federal report that is under development. I shared last week that I had reviewed the report and was humbled by the impacts our program personnel shared. I offered a couple of glimpses of example impacts. The full report will be available in the next month or so; I will share a link as soon as it is posted. In the meantime, here are a couple more impacts that we are sharing this year:
- Effective insecticides for armyworm control were used in more than 40,000 acres of rice in 2019, resulting in armyworm control, avoiding yield losses that can be as high as 20%, and resulting in economic benefits for participating growers. The availability of these insecticides could replace broad spectrum insecticides that are not effective, resulting in environmental benefits and cost savings for growers. (Luis Espino)
- CropManage is now used in 7% of the lettuce acreage in the Salinas Valley, and has resulted in an average of a 30% reduction in nitrogen fertilizer applied to these crops. (Michael Cahn)
- Recommendations from the UC ANR "Managing Drought in a Changing Climate", report have been incorporated in the Governor's 2020 Water Resilience Portfolio. (Ted Grantham)
Thanks to those who reviewed Project Board data to identify the AES projects with significant research accomplishments to highlight, as well as other program highlights they deemed worthy.
- SFS – Neil McRoberts, with assistance from Deanne Meyer
- SNE – David Lile
- EIPD – Jim Farrar and Georgios Vidalakis
- HFC – Martin Smith, Karina Diaz Rios, with coordination by Clare Gupta
- Water – Doug Parker
In addition, Katherine, Jennifer, and Kit spent many hours pulling it all together, checking facts, and creating the story. I can't wait for all of you to have a chance to review the report.
Tomorrow is Advocacy Day. The initial plan was to hold meetings at the State Capitol in person on April 1. The new plan is to conduct meetings with our state Senators, Assemblypersons, and their staff by Zoom. I enjoyed the meetings we held in Sacramento last year. I am even more excited about the meetings this year because we can more readily connect our local UC ANR people with the appropriate representatives. As a result, I am able to be in meetings with Keith, Yana, Janet, Claudia, Katherine, and Anne in addition to some of the program staff from San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. We have great stories to share with the elected officials. Fifteen offices, in total, are scheduled for visits throughout the day! I will report back later in the week how this new approach worked.