Areas of inquiry considered for Strategic Initiatives

Nearly 80 ANR members gathered in Sacramento on June 28-30 to review and make recommendations for the focus and direction of the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems strategic initiative. At the end of the SNE conference, all of the initiative leaders presented information regarding the status of their initiative plans – Sustainable Natural Ecosystems (SNE), Healthy Family and Communities (HFC), Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) and Endemic and Invasive Plants and Diseases (EIPD).

The areas of inquiry under consideration for the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems initiative are land use, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity, water supply, energy, climate change, and ecosystem services. Based on feedback from the conference, the SNE advisory panel will revise the plan and make it available on the Web from July 25 to Aug. 15 for final review and input.  The initial draft plan is posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/NRCC_2010/files/14722.pdf.

The Healthy Families and Communities Strategic Initiative Conference will be held Aug. 24 – 26 at UC Davis. Participants will discuss childhood obesity, youth science literacy, and thriving and contributing youth to identify potential areas of inquiry.

“The primary focus of the conference will be to dialog, discuss, review and further define the priority areas of inquiry identified by the panel for the HFC Strategic Initiative,” said Sharon Junge, HFC initiative leader. “It will also include the beginning development of the strategic plan for accomplishing the work over the next five years.”

Look for more details on the potential areas of inquiry for the HFC Strategic Initiative and the Initiative Conference at http://ucanr.org/sites/PSU.

The Sustainable Food Systems initiative panel is discussing areas of inquiry dealing with water issues including water supply and delivery systems, availability, reliability, price and ways to improve water use efficiency, quality and conservation. Other areas under discussion are food safety from both microbial and chemical contamination, tools to improve the relative competitiveness and productivity of California agriculture today and with projected climate changes, maintaining local and regionally based food systems, and viability of small and mid-sized farming or ranching operations. Similar to the other panels, the SFS panel is developing a draft strategic plan incorporating these areas. The draft will be circulated for review before October.

The Endemic and Invasive Pest and Diseases initiative panel is discussing potential topics including insect vectors and pathogens; surveillance tools and methodology; climate change impact on pests, weeds and the environment; and control and management of aquatic pests. They, too, will have a draft circulated for review before October.

The next steps are for the Strategic Initiative Leaders to present draft plans to Program Council in October for review and comment. These plans will be finalized based upon the comments received. Program Council will evaluate the potential areas of inquiry and make recommendations as to what kind of resources should be allocated over the next five years in ensure that UC ANR work will result in significant and demonstrated policy-relevant impacts.

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