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Posts Tagged: Jan-Feb 2019
OPIC offers UC ANR pesticide policy trainings
The Office of Pesticide Information and Coordination (OPIC) is offering its annual UC ANR pesticide policy update trainings. These trainings are intended for campus, field station and county-based UC ANR personnel who apply experimental pesticides either on UC property or on cooperators' land. It is important for all personnel handling pesticides in research and demonstration settings to attend this training.
Upcoming training dates and locations:
- March 6, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. – UC Riverside Botanic Gardens Conference Room
- March 19, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. – UC Davis Plant and Environmental Sciences Room 3001. Co-scheduled with respirator fit testing done by EH&S (email mmmaccree@ucanr.edu to schedule). Respirator safety training offered 12:30 pm-1:30 pm
- March 20, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. – Distance training. Register to receive a link to the online training.
Training at UC Davis is co-scheduled with the EH&S Respirator Fit Test. If you plan to be fit tested, contact Malendia Maccree at UC ANR Environmental Health and Safety (mmmaccree@ucanr.edu) to schedule a time for your fit test.
OPIC can reimburse travel for anyone who needs it.
Registration is online only: http://ucanr.edu/opic2019. Deadline for registration is one week prior to the training. There are no fees for these sessions. Three (3) hours of Laws and Regulations Continuing Education (CE) units will be offered for UC Pesticide Policy Training. If you have any questions, please email OPIC, OPIC@ucanr.edu, or call Lisa Blecker at (530) 750-1251.
Datasets help define stakeholder needs and significance of research, education and extension
Community-based demographic, environmental, economic, social and health data can help us better understand the 40 million people we serve.
"Whether you are drafting technical reports or applying for grant funding, you may find datasets useful to define stakeholder need and significance of research, education and extension impacts when communicating with potential partners, sponsors and advocates," said Vanity Campbell, proposal development coordinator in Contracts & Grants.
Rural County Representatives of California recently released Rural County Representatives of California, Economic and Demographic Profiles. These data sources provide demographic, environmental, economic, social and industry data by county.
County-level profiles can also inform decisions on how best to develop programs and initiatives that benefit farmers and ranchers, strengthen regional food systems and protect natural resources.
Campbell provided the following as a few more examples of county-level profile datasets that may support your efforts as UC ANR academics and programmatic staff:
Data on school performance, test results, school staffing, graduation and dropout rates.
Economic, social and demographic data at the state and county level.
Data for selected health indicators and California's leading causes of death.
County profiles designed to provide data on the health and environment (community, home and school) of California mothers, babies, children and teens.
Data on CalFresh eligibility demographics, food insecurity rates and nutrition.
Profile data including age, race/ethnicity, sex, household type and relationship, housing occupancy, and social and economic data, such as income, poverty and labor force.
A variety of health and environmental data.
Data on county-level poverty rates and food insecurity.
Demographic and community health data to support planning healthy communities and evaluating the impact of plans, projects, policy and environmental changes on community health.
Managed by U.S. General Services Administration, Technology Transformation Service, datasets provide access to agriculture, climate, consumer, ecosystem, education, energy, finance, health and local government data.
Data on economy, education, housing, health and safety, diversity for a specific city, metro area or county location.
Commodity and industry data by county and region.
County-level data for life expectancy, mortality rates, obesity prevalence and recommended physical activity levels.
In memoriam: David Towle
Towle graduated from Sacramento City College with an AA degree in civil engineering and later attended National University. He began his career with the State of California as a surveyor on the Oroville Dam, then joined ANR in 1968 as a junior engineer. Over the years, he rose to the position of assistant director of the Research and Extension Center- Administrative Office in Davis.
Towle did many of the original property surveys of the Research and Extension Centers. He also used his drafting skills to prepare property drawings and was instrumental in many of the site improvements at the centers, recalled Luzanne Martin, project manager in Facilities Planning & Management. Later, he took on responsibility for environmental health and safety for the centers and many of the personnel functions.
After serving ANR for 37 years, Towle retired in 2005, but he returned to the university as a consultant, assisting both ANR and the UC Davis Human Resources Department.
“Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with Dave remember his kindness, fairness and integrity as well as his great sense of humor and skilled story-telling,” said Martin. “After he retired, Dave would often join us at lunches and special events, and always said he LOVED retirement!”
Towle is survived by his wife, Eleanor; sister, Barbara; children, Mike, Jeffrey, Brian Gersalia and his wife, Sophia; mother in law, Martina Sandoval; seven grandchildren, and one great grandson.
Towle's family is planning a memorial event on June 15 at his home in Arbuckle.
ANR meets the public at World Ag Expo
People from across California and around the world got to taste new crops, see research demonstrations and learn about several UC ANR activities at the World Ag Expo Feb. 12-14. Despite the cold rainy weather, the world's largest agricultural exposition attracted 102,878 people representing 48 states, the District of Columbia and 65 countries to Tulare.
At an outdoor tent, Beth Grafton-Cardwell, UC Cooperative Extension specialist, Greg Douhan, UCCE citrus advisor, and other researchers, handed visitors fresh Tango citrus grown at the Lindcove Research and Extension Center and told them about their citrus variety research.
Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, UCCE small farms advisor, and Michael Yang, small farms and specialty crops agricultural assistant, encouraged visitors to taste moringa tea. Surendra Dara, UCCE entomology and biologicals advisor, described how Bagrada bugs and other pests under the microscopes can be controlled by microbes. Roger Baldwin, UCCE wildlife specialist, and Niamh Quinn, UCCE urban wildlife conflict advisor, took turns showing taxidermy vertebrate pests and describing their management research.
Jeff Mitchell, UCCE specialist, and Jeff Dahlberg, Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center director, gave demonstrations to show the superior health of soils managed with conservation techniques.
Demonstrating the use of high-tech in agriculture, Sean Hogan, Informatics and Geographic Information System academic coordinator, Andy Lyons, IGIS program coordinator, and Jacob Flanagan, IGIS programmer, showed how they use drones and cameras in agricultural research.
Inside Pavilion A, Teresa Rios-Spicer, UCCE nutrition program manager, andYeseniaMedrano, UCCE community education specialist, both from Tulare County, challenged visitors to test their nutrition knowledge by playing Jeopardy! Visitors could spin the UC Master Gardeners prize wheel to answer gardening questions and win seeds. 4-H members invited youth to peer into virtual reality goggles to give them an idea about the fun activities that can be part of joining 4-H.
Frank Mitloehner, UC Cooperative Extension specialist, gave a seminar explaining confusion in the media about the amount of greenhouse gas livestock emit in California and globally. He reviewed the innovations in livestock production that are leading the way to a "greener future" for California and U.S. agriculture.
Beth Grafton-Cardwell, UC Cooperative Extension citrus entomology specialist, and Victoria Hornbaker of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, gave an update on regulatory protocols relating to Asian citrus psyllid and HLB quarantines and the proper transportation of bulk citrus to prevent the spread of the pest and disease.
The California and Dutch AgFoodTech innovation partners reunited in Tulare for a networking luncheon to share their action plan with invited guests and scope the projects.
Nominate exceptional staff for STAR Awards by April 5
The STAR program is your opportunity to celebrate and reward the great contributions of ANR's people. The program provides one-time cash awards to eligible staff in recognition of outstanding achievement. Managers may nominate individuals and teams demonstrating exceptional performance, creativity, organizational abilities, work success and teamwork.
Policy-covered ANR staff and members of the Clerical Unit (CX) are eligible to be nominated for STAR awards. Staff in other collective bargaining units, academics and members of the Senior Management Group are not eligible to receive STAR awards.
Nomination forms and program guidelines are available on the UC ANR Human Resources website.
Send your nominations via e-mail to humanresources@ucanr.edu by April 5, 2019.
STAR Awards will be celebrated during an ANR recognition event at the ANR building in Davis on June 18, 2019.
