- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
“With a state a thousand miles long and ecosystems ranging from rain forests to arid deserts, and cropping patterns affiliated with all those things, you will not find a single location to do what needs to be done,” said Don Klingborg, who directs the advocacy and county partnerships effort at the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
That’s why the university has nine extension centers across the state — someone needs to make sure that the ideas that come out of campus labs will actually work in the field, the article noted.
“Once it has gone through that and you have done the fine-tuning, then it is time to do the transfer into the private sector,” Klingborg said.
A new generation of farmers emerges
Linda DuBois, Comstock
There are a significant number of younger Californians very interested in food, and that leads them to an interest in agriculture, said UC Davis professor Tom Tomich, director of the UC's Agriculture Sustainability Institute and of the statewide UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.
To meet this demand, UC Davis launched a new bachelor’s degree program in sustainable agriculture and food systems.
“There’s a real emphasis on experiential learning because so many of the students don’t come from a farm background,” Tomich says.
Nurturing a new crop of farmers is imperative because California agriculture is crucial to the state’s economy and to the nation’s food security, says Craig McNamara, president of the California Board of Food and Agriculture.
/span>- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
UC Cooperative Extension Central Sierra, the office serving Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, and Tuolumne counties, received final approval from the last county last week, making it ANR’s first official multi-county partnership.
Over the past year, ANR leaders have been working with county governments to identify a new structure for county-based Cooperative Extension that would maintain the strength of the programs, while reducing costs. The result is a collaborative agreement between the four counties that will consolidate administration to meet budget cuts without reducing services to residents.
“Central Sierra Nevada residents will continue to have access to educational programs and expertise in nutrition, healthy living, youth development, agriculture, home gardening, animal husbandry, forestry and natural resources,” said Scott Oneto, director of the Central Sierra Cooperative Extension office.
“This was complicated,” said Don Klingborg, director of ANR Strategic Advocacy and UC-County Partnerships. “Scott Oneto and Dorothy Smith are to be commended for negotiating the details within their communities and creating new policies so that the final package was strongly supported by county partners and stakeholders. Through this effort, we have established some guiding principles that will provide best practices for other multi-county partnerships.”
ANR will maintain an office in each county to support its county-based programs and staff, which include 4-H Youth Development, CalFRESH, Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservers, Natural Resources, Agriculture and the Nutrition, Family and Consumer Sciences Program. The UCCE office in El Dorado County at 311 Fair Lane in Placerville will serve as the administrative hub for the four counties and will be open full time. The other three counties will be open part time.
The 4-H Youth Development, Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver volunteers will continue to serve in their respective communities. Likewise, 4-H clubs and projects will maintain their county identity.
“This has been a long and challenging process,” Oneto said, “It has taken over a year to get to this point, but it has been worth it. The changes we have already made just in the last month are already resulting in significant savings in both time and money. We are fortunate to have a team of staff that is willing to pull together and make significant changes to their programs and job duties for the betterment of UCCE and clientele. A number of staff members have gone from working in just one county to now working in four. I am privileged to have such a strong and dedicated group of professionals who see the bigger picture.”
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors expressed some concerns on Tuesday about plans to reorganize the UC Cooperative Extension service on a regional basis, reported the Calaveras Enterprise. The board took no action, but the issue is expected to be brought forward for a vote in June.
Under the plan, UC Cooperative Extension in Calaveras, El Dorado and Amador counties would be consolidated. Satellite offices would be maintained in each county and the main office located in the El Dorado County community of Placerville.
“The UC system has been hammered with budget cuts, we know you’re getting hammered with budget cuts and we’re looking at ways to keep the programs that we have,” the director of ANR Strategic Advocacy and UC-County Partnerships Don Klingborg told the board. By making administration more efficient, the consolidation could save each county about 10 percent of their contribution to the program.
Supervisor Steve Wilensky took issue with the Placerville location, the newspaper reported.
“I’m not interested in an unequal partnership,” Wilensky was quoted.
The board was also concerned with the possible job loss for clerical staff.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
ANR is forming task forces to evaluate UC Cooperative Extension structure in the counties. Cooperative Extension advisors and county-based program representatives are being asked to nominate one person per county to join the county director for their respective county on a county structure task force. The deadline for nominations is Friday, May 20.
The county structure task forces will be charged with collecting the data on staffing, facilities, transportation, information technology and administration for their county CE programs, including funding from UC, county government, grants and other sources. This information will be organized and will serve as the basis for evaluating our future structure of local delivery. The task forces will be organized around counties with historical affinities, and in some cases from declarations by the counties that they want to pursue a multi-county partnership within the grouping. The ultimate structure of our county programs will be informed from evaluation of the data provided by these task forces and other study groups within ANR.
The county groupings for each task force are as follows:
- Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara
- Butte, Tehama, Glenn, Sutter, Colusa, Yuba
- Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings, Kern
- Humboldt, Del Norte, Mendocino, Lake
- Marin, Sonoma, Napa
- Imperial, San Diego, Riverside
- Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino
- Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin
- Modoc, Siskiyou, Shasta, Trinity
- Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz
- Placer-Nevada, Sacramento, Yolo, Solano
- San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura
Each task force charge will be finalized and communicated as soon as the task force members have been identified.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
"We really believe we've got to restore the capacities of our cooperative extension programs," Dooley was quoted in the story.
In the 1980s, there were about 500 UCCE advisors in California. Today, the number is 225. Dooley's goal is to bring the number up to 300.
In his remarks, Klingborg noted that the need for vibrant agricultural industries will only intensify as the population increases.
"One of the things I'm reminded of is that by 2050 we're going to need twice as much food as we need today," Klingborg was quoted. "The challenge is, how do we prepare ourselves today?"