It's #GivingTuesday! – a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals to celebrate generosity.
If you've utilized the extensive UC IPM website and our free publications, watched one of our webinars or videos, read our newsletter, or shared our social media posts on Facebook or Instagram, you've seen how #GivingTuesday donations help produce important information, tools, and trainings that enhance the quality of life, and the environmental and economic well-being of Californians.
We encourage you to support the UC IPM Urban and Community program so we can continue to create and improve the quality of free, sustainable pest management information available to the public. You can learn more about the UC IPM program's goals and impact by reading our strategic plan.
Donate here and select “UC IPM – Urban and Community fund” in the dropdown menu under “Designation”. We appreciate your contribution!
- Author: Lauren Fordyce
Today is #GivingTuesday! – a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals to celebrate generosity.
If you've utilized the extensive UC IPM website and free publications, watched one of our webinars, read our newsletter, or shared our social media post, you've seen how #GivingTuesday donations help produce important information, tools, and trainings that enhance the quality of life, and the environmental and economic well-being of Californians.
We encourage you to support the UC IPM Urban and Community program so we can continue to the create and improve the quality of free IPM information available to the public. You can learn more about the UC IPM program's goals and impact by reading our urban and community stakeholder report or strategic plan.
Donate here and select “UC IPM – Urban and Community fund” in the drop-down menu under “Designation”. We appreciate your contribution!
- Author: Wendy Powers
It has been a while since I have checked in! March is always a busy month and with resumed travel, it seemed more hectic than usual this year. We held an in-person Strategic Doing workshop in Davis mid-month. It was a small, but committed group and we have some action items to advance later this month.
The Western Extension Directors Association and Western Association Agriculture Experiment Station Directors met two weeks ago in Reno. Despite the loud noise and lights of the casino/hotel environment, it was a good meeting and nice to see everyone after two years of a virtual meeting. A key theme of the meeting was ‘telling our impactful story'. I am so proud of where UC ANR is with this topic! While there will always be room for improvement, reading through this year's federal report of impacts makes clear that we are getting better at sharing and measuring our impact. Here's one example from one of our newer CE Advisors, Zheng Wang, targeting a condition change of reduced input costs: Processing tomato growers adopted UCCE's recommendations of replanting early in the season to reduce the chance of BLH feeding and BCTV infection. Some fields prevented up to $900 of losses per acre, an approximate yield reduction of 10 tons per acre, compared to growers' other fields that were not replanted.
Last week, the Extension Council on Organization and Policy (ECOP) met in California. This group represents each of the 5 Extension ‘regions' to talk about common topics around the Cooperative Extension System. Our focus was on ensuring a clear process for working topics through the system and continuation of building our national impact narrative as we pursue opportunities for the system. While thrilled to be back in person, I do have to admit that these in-person multi-day meetings require a different kind of energy than virtual sessions. I need to acclimate a bit, but will be there soon, I am certain.
Congratulations to all those who have been working hard to submit grants! Heidi and Kathy have reported that at just three quarters of the way through the fiscal year, UC ANR is already past our total awarded amount for last fiscal year! Kathy says “Our PIs have been very busy putting in proposals and securing the awards this year. What an amazing group of academics we have!”
Lenya had some airtime recently! Check out her interview with PBS News Hour. Congratulations to Lenya and the entire Fire Advisor team for the work they are doing! I am excited to see how this work expands with the new hires coming on board.
Speaking of new hires, Amrita Mukherjee started Friday, April 1 as Cooperative Extension Urban Agriculture/Small Farms Advisor, based in Highland, CA, with programmatic responsibilities in San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties. Please reach out to Amrita with a warm welcome!
Program Council meets this week to finalize recommendations to the Vice President regarding CE Specialist positions. Stay tuned!
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The 2021 Mid-Year Strategic Plan Accomplishments Report is now posted on the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan website at https://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/UCANR_Strategic_Plan.
Created in 2016, the UC ANR Strategic Plan was refreshed in December 2020 and evolves as the needs of UC ANR and the people of California change.
The goals are designed to support the overall mission and do not reflect all ANR activities. This report highlights accomplishments specific to those goals from January to June 2021.
The accomplishments are summarized under four themes: Furthering the Research and Extension Mission, Enhancing Research and Extension Facilities, Increasing Resources for Programming, and Employing Top Talent and Supporting Volunteers.
The direct link to the report is https://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/files/359741.pdf.
- Author: Wendy Powers
I am attending a virtual conference this week. This makes for long days, because the ‘at home' work continues. I miss the old days when traveling to a conference meant you did not have to do double duty – the conference, and the usual meetings back home. Next week, I travel and continue to participate in a number of Zoom meetings. I am certain I am not alone in having difficulty finding a way out of what seems to be perpetual 10+ hour workdays. Always looking for the upside, I know I will not have too many meetings scheduled the last week of October due to jury duty. Time flies and my county clearly keeps close tabs on when my reprieve expires.
The Strategic Plan goal owners met this week. I believe we are making good progress, though there will always remain much to do, and then there is the homework. In particular, there are some interesting discussions underway with new partners and prospective donors. Then there are the efforts around DEI that continue to expand with learning opportunities and hiring practices, in particular. The new state funding will go a long way in expanding who and how we reach new audiences, through an expanded CE Advisor and CE Specialist footprint and new resources targeted at reaching our clientele in with modernized methods, while simultaneously offering advancement opportunities for some of our critical program staff. Finally, I am excited that we will take steps to right size our business support units with over 20 new hires. Again, improvement is never-ending, but we are clearly gaining ground.
This is a big week for a couple of our own. On Friday, the California Ag Leadership Foundation holds the ceremony to announce the 2021 Profiles in Leadership Award recipients. Introductions to this year's Leadership class will occur during the ceremony as well. Congratulations to Tracy and Betsy for their remarkable accomplishments!
I witnessed about 15 minutes of rain last week. Hoping to see more of it soon. In the meantime, in between presentation preparations this weekend, I need to take care of some weeds. While the rain won't help with weed control, the cooler temperatures sure make a difference.