Coming Soon Regional Drought Workshops: The New California Landscape

UC Master Gardener Program Statewide Blog

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News and updates from the statewide UC Master Gardener Program office.

Author: Lauren Snowden

Published on: May 29, 2015

The Statewide UC Master Gardener Program in partnership with the California Department of Water Resources has secured funding to provide regional drought workshops. The workshops will focus on the critical issue of water management in the home landscape and provide a forum for discussion of drought-related UC Master Gardener outreach around the state. The statewide office will be looking for interested host counties to work in partnership to roll out these workshops to the UC

Master Gardener volunteers.

To provide continuing education for UC Master Gardeners, the Statewide UC Master Gardener Program provides regional workshops and trainings. These events are always popular and serve as a place for Master Gardeners to learn new things, refine their skills, interact with University of California scientists, and meet other gardeners. By promoting activities where UC Master Gardeners learn together, the Statewide UC Master Gardener Program ensures that Master Gardeners are up-to-date with the most recent research recommendations from the University of California.

Together, through this series of workshops, the UC Master Gardeners are making a difference! Hope to see you at one of “The New California Landscape” drought workshops!

Tags: Statewide UC Master Gardener Program; Training; Workshop; Drought

Tags: california (4), drought (3), DWR (1), master gardener (41)

Comments: 20

Comments:

by Jerri Kelley

on May 29, 2015 at 10:26 AM

Do we know yet when these workshops are going to be offered?

by Lauren Snowden

on May 29, 2015 at 12:06 PM

No dates or location have been set at this time. Thank you for all the excitement surrounding this much needed and highly anticipated workshop.

by Beatrice Ross

on May 30, 2015 at 12:24 PM

Sign me up for Regional Drought workshops.

Reply by Marcy Sousa

on June 11, 2015 at 11:29 AM

Announcements will go out to all Master Gardeners once the dates and locations have been selected and confirmed. Keep your eyes open for these announcements in the near future!

by Marilynne Manfredi

on June 1, 2015 at 9:44 PM

This is great! Merced Master Gardeners are already beginning outreach to the community by starting a Drought Committee partnered with the City of Merced's Water Specialist. We have created "Lawn Parties," an idea to enlist "client-volunteers" to host their neighbors to learn about water saving tips from the Merced Master Gardeners. We set up cans to test their sprinklers and inform the group about the need to cut back on excess landscaping watering. Home Dept has donated 5 gallon orange buckets and 3 gallon blue buckets to help the "client-volunteers" capture their warming water and realize how much water is running down the sink. We would be happy to host a Regional Drought Workshop in the future. Please consider Merced for one of your locations! Marilynne Manfredi Merced Master Gardener 209 631-3235

by John Shovein

on June 2, 2015 at 8:40 AM

Great idea. Glenn County would be glad to host a Regional Drought Workshop.

Reply by Marcy Sousa

on June 11, 2015 at 11:29 AM

Thank you for your interest! All Master Gardener coordinators have been sent information on how to apply to be a host county for these regional workshops.

by Carol Fall

on June 2, 2015 at 9:32 AM

I hope that one of the regional drought workshops will cover issues in mountain communities like Trinity. We also are required to meet the state reduction goals, even though there's no water shortage. so convincing folks to decrease lawn watering is tough, especially since there are very few lawns. So how do we meet the mandatory reductions? I'd offer to host a workshop in Trinity, but our program loses funding as of July 1. Good luck!!

by Randy Thomson

on June 2, 2015 at 10:00 AM

Looks interesting and I am interested! Please share the dates, times, and locations ASAP so we may plan attendance.

by Tece Markel

on June 2, 2015 at 4:52 PM

Looking forward to further info!

by Julie Gosler

on June 3, 2015 at 2:42 PM

San Mateo/San Francisco Program would love to host a workshop this fall.

Reply by Marcy Sousa

on June 11, 2015 at 11:28 AM

Thank you for your interest! All Master Gardener coordinators have been sent information on how to apply to be a host county for these regional workshops.

by Gabriele A O'Neill

on June 4, 2015 at 10:21 AM

We have been and still are teaching workshops on Gardening in a Drought since beginning of 2014 in partnership with County Special Districts, the local water agency.
Luckily I had good resources from several other counties and Colorado State University from the beginning. I'm curious to see what new information is going to be made available to us.
It seems to me that a major issue that needs work are the local greywater regulations, which currently discourage people from using this resource (other than the laundry to landscape set-up) because of the bureaucratic red tape and the cost involved to hire a professional to design and install a system that meets the requirements of Planning Departments (which themselves are very poorly informed about the issue, it seems to me).
I understand that this is not the turf of the University, but their communication with / education of local planning departments might help the cause along?

by Winona Victery

on June 4, 2015 at 6:25 PM

Please include me in a Solano or nearby county workshop.

Reply by Marcy Sousa

on June 11, 2015 at 11:30 AM

Announcements will go out to all Master Gardeners once the dates and locations have been selected and confirmed. Keep your eyes open for these announcements in the near future!

by Jackie Seidman

on June 5, 2015 at 9:07 PM

I would love to attend as many of these workshops as you make available.
Please keep us posted.

by Elizabeth A Haffner

on June 5, 2015 at 10:14 PM

I am very interested in this. Sign me up

Reply by Marcy Sousa

on June 11, 2015 at 11:30 AM

Announcements will go out to all Master Gardeners once the dates and locations have been selected and confirmed. Keep your eyes open for these announcements in the near future!

by Liane Veenema

on June 9, 2015 at 11:09 AM

I work at Chino Basin Water Conservation District in Montclair (on the border of San Bernardino Cty and Los Angeles Cty) - we would be happy to host a workshop. The San Bernardino trainees have been using our facilities for the 2015 training. You can contact me at 909-267-3226 or lveenema@cbwcd.org.

Reply by Marcy Sousa

on June 11, 2015 at 11:27 AM

Thank you for your interest! All Master Gardener coordinators have been sent information on how to apply to be a host county for these regional workshops.