TopicsSeptember 19, 2023
- Message from the Associate Vice-President and Director of Extension
- Congrats to 2023 Heart of Extension Award Recipients
- RISE Symposium Coming Soon
- Become a Growing Greener Ambassador
- Volunteers Needed for Grape Study
- Save the Date - Winter Viticulture Symposium
- New Publication - Northern Arizona Water Affordability Study
- Job Opening
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Message from the Associate Vice-President and Director of Extension
Road Trip Report #42 – This week’s travel took me back to Gila County to the Gila County Cattle Growers Association Fall Meeting. This was more of a family affair, so we all got into the car Saturday morning and headed up.
The meeting was filled with presentations from members and guest speakers. Paul Brierly, Director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture, and Ashley Hall, our livestock/range management area agent, were present. The meeting was topped off with a steak, salads, beans, and plenty of homemade desserts brought by the attendees.
I also attended the Agribusiness and Water Council of Arizona annual meeting at the PERA Club at SRP. It was good to see some old friends there, and the representation from UArizona, and especially UArizona Cooperative Extension, was impressive. As you all know, water was the highest priority identified in our statewide needs assessment. The presentations given were insightful, and the message is we had an excellent water year last year, but our work on water conservation must continue.
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Esther Turner with Ed Martin, state Director of Extension
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Heart of Extension Award
Eight Extension teammates from across the state earned Heart of Extension Awards in 2023. Each received a plaque August 4 at the Annual Conference in Tucson. Each week, TEN is featuring the presentation speeches from the conference. Congratulations!
Esther Turner
Associate Agent, 4-H, Pinal County
Ester’s nominator explained that she throws her whole heart into her work describing her program development and leadership as passionate, driven, and strategic. Even before accepting her current position as a 4-H Associate Agent for Pinal County, she was actively involved in keeping Pinal County 4-H alive and active while also maintaining her other job responsibilities.
Every day, Esther leads with heart by guiding, inspiring and coaching. She demonstrates a commitment to excellence by setting high standards for herself, and encouraging others to do the same. Esther is one of the individuals in the Pinal County office that others approach to chat with about concerns, fears and challenges, knowing that they will be heard, their feelings will be acknowledged, and her thoughtful questions will help them find a solution.
When there is a project or person needing help, you’ll find Esther right in the thick of the action. Whether it is heading up the committee to build a UACE float for the annual Christmas Electric Light Parade, directing an AmeriCorps team in projects to benefit Veterans, or helping connect an immigrant family to health services for their children, Esther works to ensure that Extension programming and resources reach and benefit everyone. Esther Turner has the heart, shows the heart, and is the heart of Extension.
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| The 19th annual RISE Symposium is set for next month on the University of Arizona campus. Objectives include sharing recent research results from the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed and University of Arizona Santa Rita Experimental Range, encouraging research at the WGEW and SRER, and promoting the WGEW and the SRER as scientific laboratories. Speakers will present recent or ongoing research on the WGEW, SRER or other outdoor laboratories. There is also a student poster competition with monetary awards.
Scheduled speakers include Nico Franz describing the NEON Biorepository; Michael Kotutwa Johnson describing what we can learn from indigenous ingenuity; Joel Biederman describing early results of a precipitation manipulation experiment; and Betsy Arnold describing the diversity of soil microbes and mushrooms.
When: 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday, October 21
Where: Marley Building Auditorium (Room 230), University of Arizona, Tucson
Please see the symposium website to read the program, register, submit poster abstracts or enter the student poster contest, or view talks and posters from past years.
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Become a Growing Greener Ambassador
The Climate Working Group is looking for people who want to learn how to facilitate workshops like this one and license the materials for use with groups of adults and children.
This professional development workshop by Mick Smyer of Growing Greener helps groups connect to their favorite natural spaces to move toward meaningful individual and collective climate action. If you are interested in signing up for a train-the-trainer workshop tentatively planned for Spring of 2024, please enter your email address in this survey.
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Save the Date - Winter Viticulture Symposium
- What: University of Arizona Winter Viticulture Symposium, featuring experts in vineyard irrigation, soil and fertility, entomology, pathology, weather and climate, and small business development. Lunch sponsored by the Arizona Wine Growers Association
- When: December 6
- Where: University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, Tucson
Plus, a workshop-style review of the 2023 growing season
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| New Publication
Michael Kotutwa Johnson
Access to safe, reliable, affordable drinking water is the foundation of public health, economic opportunity, and quality of life in any community. Yet, significant challenges associated with providing and maintaining this access exist across Arizona, perhaps most acutely on Native American reservations and in small, physically isolated rural communities across the state. Northern Arizona in particular is known for its isolated, rural areas and for the challenges faced by the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and other tribal and rural communities in developing and maintaining access to safe, reliable drinking water.
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Job Opening
Assistant/Associate Agent (ANR), Pima County – This continuing eligible Assistant/Associate Extension Agent position will work with a dynamic team of professionals developing and delivering community outreach programs that provide research-based, objective informal agriculture and natural resources education in Pima County, Arizona. The primary focus of the position will be to develop and deliver education and assistance to small-scale and urban growers in Pima County. In addition, the agent will engage and collaborate with urban food systems work conducted at the Pima County Cooperative Extension (PCCE), The Garden Kitchen, and 4-H farm-focused youth workforce development at PCCE Tucson Village Farm. The Agent will also oversee the Master Gardener Program located at PCCE as well as other natural resources programming related to the environment and natural systems. In addition to outreach, the agent will develop and conduct applied research, produce scholarly Extension publications, present at conferences and meetings, and pursue grant funding to support research and program work. This position is administratively and programmatically responsible to the County Extension Director and the Director of Arizona Cooperative Extension and is located at Pima County Cooperative Extension. Please visit the UA Talent website for more information or to apply. If you have any questions, please contact Debbie Curley.
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