- Author: Olivia, Green Valley 4-H Reporter
Every year the Green Valley 4-H Club does several community service projects. During the holiday months, community service projects involve bell ringing for the Salvation Army, Giving Tree Gift Giving and providing food to a needy family.
At their November meeting, all members brought canned and dried goods to put together a giant food basket for a needy family in Sonoma County. The week of Thanksgiving they went on shopping trip to buy fresh items to include; such as a turkey, milk, butter and bread. Then they delivered all of the items to the family.
Club members also received Giving Tree hearts at the meeting. The Sonoma County Community Foundation organizes this activity and every year club members each take a heart to fulfill the wishes on the heart. Each heart represents a person and it lists their age and their wishes. Wrapped gifts are brought to the December meeting so that they can be distributed before Christmas.
The Green Valley 4-H will also be bell ringing at the Wal-Mart in Windsor on the weekends throughout the holiday season. Stop by and say hello.
- Author: Karen Giovannini
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO MARCH 14, 2015
Project Learning Tree (PLT) and the UC ANR (through the Cooperative Extension System and Hopland Research & Extension Center) have teamed up to provide a local training opportunity for educators at the Hopland Research & Extension Center, Rod Shippey Hall on Friday, December 12 from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Register online.
Project Learning Tree provides educators with peer-reviewed, award-winning environmental education curriculum resources that can be integrated into lesson plans for all grades and subject areas.
Sandy Derby of the UC Cooperative Extension office in Davis, is Project Learning Tree's State Coordinator. She will be facilitating the workshop.
Participants will learn how Environmental Education is changing in California…and how they can be a part of that exciting change! They will engage in a full array of inquiry-based activities that exemplify inquiry-based learning and critical thinking, define STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education, and Support constructivist NGSS (the Next Generation Science Standards).
Participants will receive a free EEI (Education and the Environment Initiative) unit and choose one of the most popular PLT modular guides “Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood”, “Places We Live”, or “Focus on Forests”.
Cost per person is $65 to cover light brunch and lunch, facilities use, and activity materials. Register online.
Please say you will join us for this exciting opportunity in our area to learn about what PLT and the UC can do for you and your students!
- Author: Julia Van Soelen Kim, UCCE North Bay Food Systems Advisor, jvansoelen@ucanr.edu
Attendees were interested in learning the ins and outs of creating small-batch and artisanal “value-added” products featuring locally grown fruits and vegetables. Value-added production is an emerging food trend with the potential to help grow the local economy and support farmers' livelihood by tapping new revenue streams from preserving the peak of harvest and farm seconds which may otherwise go to waste.
The workshop opened with a warm welcome from Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt (District 2) and Supervisor Shirlee Zane (District 3) and thoughtful facilitation from Joseph McIntyre with Ag Innovations Network. These leaders “built a foundation of trust, care, and urgency for the work, resulting in a productive and energizing day for the audience and presenters alike,” explained Pamela Swan with Sonoma County's Department of Health Services.
The workshop was offered as part of the “Opportunities in Ag Business” series presented by UC Cooperative Extension and Sonoma County Department of Health Services and was generously sponsored by American Ag Credit. The workshop complemented the work of the Sonoma County Food System Alliance and helped move forward the goals of the Food Action Plan, the countywide vision for a vibrant local food system.
- Author: Sarah Nossaman Pierce snossamanpierce@ucsd.edu
Grape Creek is a small stream that flows through the picturesque Dry Creek Valley in Healdsburg, surrounded by vineyards, rustic wineries, and a solid community of residents and grape growers—including many who have roots in this valley dating back several generations. Grape Creek—a tributary to Dry Creek, which flows into the Russian River—is home to several aquatic species, including endangered coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout. Despite the abundance of natural resources that Grape Creek supports, like many streams in the Russian River watershed, it becomes intermittent in the summer months when surface flows decrease and demand for water increases.
UC's primary role in this effort is to conduct a multi-year study designed to correlate instream flow and other environmental conditions to oversummer survival of juvenile salmon. Data from this study has given partners a better understanding of how much water coho need to survive the summer months in Grape Creek. Building on this science, the Partnership worked with landowners to implement several streamflow improvement projects and significantly reduce frost protection diversions in the watershed. Projects include the construction of an off-stream pond that eliminates irrigation use of a streamside well, installation of a frost protection fan in order to eliminate a direct diversion and on-stream dam (which was a fish passage barrier), a conservation project to reduce water use by installing a steam cleaning machine and three frost fans, and construction of an off-stream pond that eliminates the use of an on-stream pond for frost protection and irrigation water. None of this would have been possible without the invaluable cooperation and contributions of streamside landowners, some of whom used their own resources for project implementation.
Thanks in good part to this work and the exemplary cooperation of local landowners, Grape Creek was named one of the National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP)'s Waters to Watch in 2013. It received this honor due to the importance of its fish species and the collaborative conservation action occurring within the watershed. Last month, NFHP released a video highlighting this collective work.
In many ways, the Grape Creek watershed is a microcosm for the many types of water needs and potential conservation projects that can be implemented across California's coastal streams. UC and the Partnership are using the lessons learned in Grape Creek to continue this effort in other streams within the Russian River basin.
You can read more about the activities of UC's Coho Salmon Monitoring Program and the Partnership.
- Author: Paul G. Olin
Mariska Obedzinski, Coho Monitoring Coordinator with UCCE Sonoma/SEAGrant was awarded a Staff Appreciation & Recognition Plan Award (STAR Plan Incentive Awards) from UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography under a program sponsored by University of California Office of the President.
Mariska demonstrated exceptional leadership resulting in the integration of the Sea Grant Extension Program as a partner in a statewide Coastal Monitoring program for endangered salmon. The goal of this project is to gather data that will identify the status and trends of anadromous coho, steelhead, and Chinook populations in the Russian River Watershed.
This work is part of a larger effort by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to identify and improve our understanding of population drivers affecting coastal salmonid populations in California. Mariska independently collaborated with colleagues in DFW and the Sonoma County Water Agency to create a monitoring partnership and proposal to secure funding to support monitoring activities over the 2-year project period.
In addition to this new activity, Mariska plays a central role in ongoing coordination and personnel management of multiple research projects supported by NOAA, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to monitor the recovery of endangered coho salmon in the Russian River.
Mariska is clearly deserving of this award. Congratulations Mariska!