As we observe Invasive Species Week, we invite you to join us in our collective efforts to combat the potential threat posed by the Spotted Lanternfly to the state of California. We kindly request your assistance in sharing the following information through your internal and external newsletters to raise awareness and empower our community to take action.

eLearning Course: Spotted Lanternfly in California

Join us in an exciting announcement as we unveil the launch of our brand-new eLearning course, "Spotted Lanternfly in California," available on eXtension Campus. This comprehensive online training is specifically designed to educate the public, UC Master Gardeners, and other stakeholders about the potential threat posed by the Spotted Lanternfly (SFL) to the state of California.

The interactive nature of the course ensures an engaging learning experience, providing learners with a deep understanding of the Spotted Lanternfly's ecology and its potential impact on California's agricultural and natural ecosystems. By enrolling in this course, you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to detect, identify, and report any Spotted Lanternfly sightings within the state.

Why should you take this course?

• Stay Informed: The course delivers information on the Spotted Lanternfly's biology, behavior, and potential risks to California. You'll gain valuable insights into the species and its potential impact, ensuring you are well informed about this emerging threat.
  
  
• Early Detection and Reporting: Recognizing the signs of a Spotted Lanternfly infestation is crucial for preventing its establishment and spread. This training equips you with the skills to identify the different life stages and habitats of the Spotted Lanternfly, empowering you to promptly report any sightings to the appropriate authorities.
  
  
• Protect California's Agriculture and Environment: California's diverse agriculture and delicate ecosystems make it susceptible to the damaging effects of invasive species. By completing this course, you become an essential part of the defense against the Spotted Lanternfly, helping safeguard the state's valuable crops and natural resources.
  
  
• Share Your Knowledge: As a UC Master Gardener or gardening enthusiast, your influence within your community is invaluable. By participating in this training, you gain the tools and expertise to educate others about the Spotted Lanternfly and promote awareness and prevention measures.

How to access the course

To enroll in the "Spotted Lanternfly in California" eLearning course, visit eXtension Campus. Create a free account or sign into an existing account. Locate the course title, “Spotted Lanternfly in California”, course #1900, and enroll. You will gain immediate access to the course materials, allowing you to learn at your own pace and convenience.

Additionally, we encourage you to share this training opportunity with friends, family, and fellow gardening enthusiasts. The more individuals we can reach, the stronger our collective effort to prevent the establishment of the Spotted Lanternfly in California. Together, we can make a difference and ensure a future free from the damaging impact of invasive species.

In a beneficial move for all of us, the statewide office will be better equipped to be responsive in addressing the needs of our county-based programs. Over the next program year, we will be promoting Melissa and Lauren, conceptualizing two new Regional Operations Coordinator positions, pursuing funding to increase our Evaluation Coordinator's FTE, and ultimately recruiting to fill FIVE vacancies. 

First and foremost, the re-org effort recognizes the contributions of long-time staff of the statewide team, Melissa Womack and Lauren Snowden. Melissa is moving into a new role as the Assistant Director for Impact and Communications. Once her reclassification is complete, Melissa will lead the recruitment of an additional 2.0 FTE who will work with her on marketing, branding, communications, evaluation, and program advocacy support. 

Lauren will be moving into a new Online Training Coordinator position that will take advantage of the incredible personal and professional work she has done to earn her certification as an Instructional Designer. While we re-envision Lauren's former Statewide Training Coordinator position, Lauren will continue to lead our current training-related commitments, including the 2023 UC Master Gardener Conference. 

Congratulations to both Melissa and Lauren – these promotions are well-deserved! 

A new and exciting position we will be adding to the team is a Regional Operations Coordinator for northern CA and a Regional Operations Coordinator for southern CA. During our Community Meeting in Fresno we kicked off dialog about the function of this role and brainstormed what we want the position to be. We will continue this program through 2023 and aim to finalize the position to begin recruitment in early 2024. 

You can find a link to a PowerPoint presentation that includes additional details about the Regional Operations Coordinator position here. 

“The Extension Education Evaluation Award is awarded for an evaluation of outstanding quality. This team has established the gold standard to improve Extension program evaluation and provide accountability for public funds invested in the UC Master Gardener Program.”
- Deanne Meyer, Interim Associate Vice President

Congratulations to our UC Master Gardener community! Our program is honored to have received the Excellence in Extension Program Evaluation Award from the American Evaluation Association. This award is given for an evaluation of outstanding quality. Criteria for excellence in program evaluation are accuracy, feasibility, propriety and utility, with particular emphasis placed on utility in improving Extension programs, policies and/or accountability.

What makes our statewide evaluation award-winning? Aggregating data from a state with diverse geographic and climactic variability is a challenge. Add to that a need to determine the impact for a large statewide program delivered locally and you have a complex system that you need to bring understanding to. Working together with the UC ANR Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, our UC Master Gardener community developed a statewide evaluation to quantify and communicate our program outcomes. This effort helps us understand and communicate the benefit of volunteer-led education efforts and document behavior changes of participants to attend our public education events.

This evaluation approach was the first of its kind reported in the literature and serves as the gold standard for evaluation for Extension Master Gardener Programs across the country to replicate locally. California is now in our fifth year of collecting data. The information we collect is reported to the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture as part of our annual reporting requirements.

The UC IPM Urban and Community program is looking for ways to better serve UC Master Gardeners and the residents of California. We have created a brief survey to gather feedback on how we can improve IPM-related education and resources.

UC IPM is particularly interested in what webinar topics, online and print resources, and training materials are needed; or, what existing IPM materials need to be updated. We understand that the pandemic has reshaped the way information and resources are shared, so perhaps you are seeing a need for more online and virtual content, or more social media content. How can we help with that?

Before responding to the survey, we want to remind you of the special section on the UC IPM website exclusively for UC Master Gardeners https://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu/master-gardeners/. These pages contain quick links to commonly accessed pages and tools on the UC IPM public pages. More importantly though, the “IPM for UC Master Gardener” pages house recent training materials and packages, the two types of loaner collections that can be reserved (Natural Enemies kit or Empty Pesticide Containers), and ordering materials such as Quick Tips, bookmarks, and posters. We encourage you to continue (or start!) using these resources.

We have recently added and updated several Quick Tips, so a new Quick Tips Order Form will be available for 2023. Please remember to let us know if you have delegated someone else other than yourself to order Quick Tips for your program. Using the IPM Needs by UC MGs survey you can also inform us of any new Quick Tips that you think would be useful for outreach.

To help us streamline the survey feedback, we ask that you gather suggestions from your program volunteers and submit just one survey for your county. This will help us to better understand regional differences to allow us to meet the demands of California's diverse interests and population! Please complete the survey by December 31, 2022.

The UC IPM Program appreciates all the great outreach done by the UC Master Gardeners! Please continue to share our webinars, social media posts, and publications with not only your volunteers, but with your communities at large. We strive for our content to reach all Californians and hope to see more of the general public at our webinars and interacting with our social media posts. Thanks for all your help!

- Karey Windbiel-Rojas and Lauren Fordyce