Posts Tagged: education
Summer IPM Webinars
Need some summer plans? Join UC IPM at 12:00pm on the third Thursday of every month to learn...
Connecting California’s forest landowners with California Tree School
While trees and forests are often emblematic of constancy in a fast-paced world, our state's forests are actually changing before our eyes. Since 2020, the UC ANR Forest Stewardship Education (FSE) program has been helping California's forest landowners be proactive about the inevitable shifts their forestland will experience. The Forest Stewardship and Post-Fire Forest Resilience workshop programs use an online educational format, which guide landowners through the basics of creating forest management plans and managing post-fire landscapes, respectively. Now, the FSE team is piloting a new program to engage a wider audience of forest landowners and community members passionate about trees.
This spring, the Forest Stewardship and UC ANR Fire Network teams are holding the first California Tree School, where individuals attend multiple in-person classes on the forestry topics they are most curious about. “The existing online programs are very focused on forest management plans and post-fire activity, and [Tree School] lets us tackle other topics,” said UC ANR forest and natural resources advisor Susie Kocher.
A one-stop shop for continuing forestry education
California Tree School was inspired when Forest Stewardship Academic Coordinator Kim Ingram, Post-fire Academic Coordinator Katie Reidy and Kocher attended Oregon State University Extension's Tree School event in Clackamas County, Oregon. OSU Tree School is a day-long experience comprised of classes that cover the different dimensions of forestry: constructing a house from your own timber, carbon cap and trade, and buying portable sawmills are just a small sampling of the options for attendees. OSU Tree School students ranged from forest landowners to community college students, contributing to a space which would facilitate community connections as well as learning.
Kocher described the experience as a “a great one-day, one-stop shop to keep up-to-date on what we [forest landowners and professionals] should know.” Excited by the breadth of opportunities offered at OSU's Tree School, Ingram, Kocher and Reidy were inspired to bring the format to California.
“It's our time to discuss the whole ecosystem,” noted Reidy. “Tree School is bringing in the trustworthy, reliable group of experts who can provide more information on the questions pertaining to landowners' specific goals.”
California Tree School will be offered in two locations this spring, with CA Tree School- Hopland taking place on May 4, and CA Tree School- El Dorado on June 1. Similar to OSU's Tree School, attendees are expected to be a mix of forest landowners, natural resource professionals and interested community members.
Connecting statewide professionals; personalizing forestry education
Tree School offers attendees the opportunity to focus on subjects that pertain to their specific learning needs. This personalized approach is a new foray for the Forest Stewardship team, but is something that Ingram says workshop participants have been wanting for some time.
“Our participants never think they learn enough. They are always asking for more information, and this Tree School gives us the chance to expand on things we might not have had a chance to go over in the workshop series,” remarked Ingram. Additionally, Tree School instructors had creative freedom when it came to developing their classes, from the topic to the class format. This is evident when browsing through each session's class catalog. CA Tree School attendees choose four classes to attend, meaning they can build their first burn pile, understand the ins and outs of regional wildlife, paint outdoors and learn how to aid statewide reforestation efforts all in one day.
“I felt that Tree School created a sense of trust around complex topics,” noted Reidy about her experience last year in Oregon. For CA Tree School, the Forest Stewardship team aims to do the same. This meant recruiting from throughout the UC ANR network and other organizations, including CALFIRE and CARCD (California Association of Resource Conservation Districts), to bring trusted voices to the community.
“What's exciting about Tree School is that we are bringing natural resource professionals from all around to engage everyone at the same time, and all in one place,” noted Ingram.
The team is excited to see all the connections that will be made between community members and professionals during this pilot year, and “if this is successful and we can bring it back next year,” commented Kocher, “we are definitely interested in partnering with more people and expanding our outreach.”
Making CA Tree School an in-person experience was important to the team, as much of the education is hands-on. Additionally, Kocher sees enhanced potential for building personal connections: “In person, you have this opportunity for people to identify as part of a community,” noted Kocher, “So I'm excited for people to hang out with each other.”
Encouraging an informed community
“You can't separate the emotional from the physical, and there are a lot of topics in forestry like wildfire and economics that can be a bit of a downer,” said Ingram. “I'm excited to help create a positive learning environment, and one that encourages folks to turn to UC Cooperative Extension for these resources.”
“Our main goal here is to get science out there,” concurred Reidy. “The more exposure people have to science, the more confident they feel in themselves and their wants and needs.”
UCCE Mendocino & Lake Counties Contact Information and Interest Signup Survey
It has been many years since UC Cooperative Extension aka Farm Advisors have done an educational interest survey and updated our client contact database. There have been a lot of changes in our staff and many new farmers and ranchers have come into our counties so the time is right to update old information and let others, that are not familiar with our programs, join our clientele/supporter contact list.
We've also decided to go to a more modern program for informing the public and our supporters about the educational and research programs we offer in Mendocino and Lake Counties. The name of the program we'll be using is called Constant Contact.
We've learned from the Covid restrictions how to offer some of our educational programs through webinars, zoom conferences and social media. We realize not everyone likes some of these formats, or have poor Internet connection speeds. We are offering our traditional public workshops and field days again. We want to make sure you get our information through your preferred delivery methods. For some of you who may not be familiar with our programs, a few questions below will help you to know the specific areas we can provide information and research on and will insure you only get what you're interested in.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to fill out our survey. Personal information provided to us is confidential and will never be shared with anyone. If, after filling out our survey and receiving information from us, you no longer want to be contacted by us you may at any time asked to be removed from our contact database. All participants who submit a survey are eligible to enter a random drawing to win one of three Amazon $100 e-gift cards. We will be drawing for winners from everyone who opted in for the drawing and complete our survey.
The survey is on-line at: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=7082
Please also share the link with others who would be interested in our programs. Thanks!!!
Winter season: A time for food safety systems re-evaluation and education for food hubs
The holiday meal season is often a busy time for food hubs – entities that handle the aggregation, distribution and/or marketing of source-identified regional food – as restaurants, retailers and consumers fill their tables and shelves with an abundance of fresh, local products. However, the subsequent winter months can provide a valuable time for reflection and re-evaluation of a food hub's systems and processes. In this spirit, it may be helpful to remind people working at food hubs that University of California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) offers a suite of food-safety resources – in English and in Spanish – on its website.
- A step-by-step guide for food hubs on how to pursue a third-party food safety audit with guidance on how to navigate buyers' questions.
- Two sample food-safety plans intended as a starting point to be adapted to a food hub's specific operations and practices.
- Example standard operating procedure, or SOP, documents related to 11 common tasks carried out by food hubs.
“We hope these resources can play a role in helping food hubs to adopt best practices and control risks related to food safety,” says Gwenael Engelskirchen, sustainable food and farming coordinator with UC SAREP, who led the development of these educational tools.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately, 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases annually. In 2011, to help prevent the occurrence of foodborne illness, the federal government enacted the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), designed to outline actions to be taken at various points along the supply chain for both human and animal food.
UC SAREP's Food Safety Resources for Food Hubs are intended to help food hubs navigate these food-safety regulations and accompanying best practices. Resources are also available in Spanish at Recursos de seguridad alimentaria para los centros de distribución de alimentos.
Food safety certification guide
Some buyers verify a supplier's food safety program by requiring an audit performed by a third-party certification body or auditing company. This Guide to Food Safety Certification offers key considerations before deciding to pursue a food safety audit and helps users navigate the food safety certification process.
Food safety plan
Food hubs that meet the criteria for full compliance with FSMA's Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule are required to have a food-safety plan in place. And for all food hubs, having a shared document describing the facility's operations and how potential risks of food contamination are managed is a good idea. Two sample food safety plans, inspired by the operations of food hubs in California, provide a starting point and can be adapted to a hub's own operations.
Standard operating procedures
Standard operating procedures provide detailed step-by-step instructions for how to carry out operational tasks within a food facility. The standard operating procedure samples cover common topics such as handwashing, facility cleaning and more, and are intended to be adapted to a food hub's specific operations and practices.
Jacob Weiss from Spork Food Hub in Davis said, “the templates were a great starting place for us to build the framework of our food safety plan. It helped us figure out what we needed to (and didn't) need to include. I think the SOPs are also really useful because they are broad enough to get you started but flexible enough to add the specific practices of your business or hub.”
For additional information, visit UC SAREP's webpages on Food Safety Resources for Food Hubs or Recursos de seguridad alimentaria para los centros de distribución de alimentos.
These resources and tools were developed in collaboration with various project partners, including Department of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis, Department of Population Health and Reproduction at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Center for Precision Medicine and Data Science at UC Davis Health, and Community Alliance with Family Farmers.
UCCE Tulare County Educates Local Students About Prunes, a Local Crop
Visalia students at Linwood Elementary were introduced to prunes as a local crop and a nutritious...
Elizabeth Fichtner, UCCE Farm Advisor and Bethany Gonzales, First Grade Teacher, Linwood Elementary
Sixth grader, Sophie, poses with her first grade "buddy" Theo, giving prunes a thumbs up!