EXTENSION UPDATE: An ongoing newsletter for staff and volunteers from John Pike, Dean & Director, regarding personnel, programs, finances and other Extension-related issues.

I am pleased to announce that Darrel Covell will serve as interim program leader for our Sea Grant and Water Resources Program. Darrel also will continue in his position of program leader for the UNH Cooperative Extension Forestry and Wildlife Program.

Darrel assumed leadership for the forestry and wildlife program area two years ago, previously holding the position of Extension Wildlife Specialist. A New Hampshire native, Darrel got his college education at the University of New Hampshire and University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served as the Extension Wildlife Outreach Specialist in Wisconsin for seven years before coming back to lead the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation as its executive director prior to his employment with Extension.

Darrel looks forward to working with each staff member of our Sea Grant and Water Resources program. He knows that each staff member in this program strives to make a difference in the communities throughout New Hampshire as well as through marine and water research and education.

I want to thank Darrel for assuming this additional responsibility, as we continue to focus on the continued integration of Sea Grant Extension and Cooperative Extension.

Ann Reid, Great Bay Coast Watch director, retired at the end of December. Ann, the well-known face of the Docent Program, has led the program from its inception.

The program has grown and established itself as a Seacoast institution under her leadership. To determine the future course of the program, a program review committee will be established to  address its status. The committee will review the history and look at how to shape its future with representatives of Seacoast agencies and non-profits and others who do similar work. The review will determine a configuration for the Watch that best addresses the needs of the region and the mission of outreach and data collection that is at the heart of the program.

We will certainly miss Ann’s efforts for Cooperative Extension and the Great Bay Coast Watch, and as those who know Ann, she is caring and attentive to the needs of her many volunteers, quick to help whenever needed, and committed to marine education and protecting the salty water of New Hampshire. Ann is still a Docent, so we fully expect to see her frequently, with camera in hand.

In the top right photo, I presented Ann with the framed John Hatch mural of "The Falls," which depicts the Durham waterfront in the 1820s.

The national financial and credit crisis has many residents scurrying to find ways to save and better manage their money, and the need for financial management education in the state has intensified. The goal of most New Hampshire residents is financial security, keeping pace with day-to-day basic needs, as well as having the ability to save and invest for the future.

UNH Cooperative Extension’s financial management educational efforts for youth and adults have already increased New Hampshire residents’ skills and as a result, many changed their financial practices to help them reach their financial goals. These goals include decreasing debt, starting or adding to an emergency fund, following a spending plan, paying bills on time and increasing savings.

In addition to money management education for adults, teachers are trained to teach personal financial education for youth with the National Endowment for Financial Education’s High School Financial Planning Program, in collaboration with NH Jump$tart Coalition. Last year nearly 3,500 high school students received personal finance education in New Hampshire. This total is estimated to be about five percent of the New Hampshire high school student population.

UNH Cooperative Extension also coordinates the N.H. EITC Alliance where asset-building coalitions and statewide partners work towards increasing the numbers of taxpayers getting their tax returns prepared for free with a focus of increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for those eligible.

The EITC population is at 200 percent of poverty or less, who are in need of additional dollars to make ends meet. The dollars gained by the individuals/households is typically spent in the communities where they live. With 68 free tax preparation sites located statewide for tax year 2007, the free tax preparation sites filed 13,607 returns. As a result, taxpayers received $2,334,383 in Earned Income Tax Credit, $1,192,035 in Child Tax Credit and $10,111,262 in refunds. At many of the free sites, money management education is available.

A Merrimack County resident said, “This course made me much more aware of my income, debt and need to budget.” From a Grafton County resident, “I am now better at planning and saving for the future and for emergencies.” From a Strafford County resident, “After completing this program, I will now start managing money and getting my debt cleared.” From a Cheshire County resident “I have learned that I need to pay attention and get organized when it comes to money.” From a Sullivan County resident, “I am very happy with how I have cut out all of the extras. I have freed up money that allows me to become more financially sound and reach my goals.”

UNH Cooperative Extension money management education has made a tangible difference in New Hampshire residents’ lives.

Changing the SceneNH will now be known as HEALthy Schools: Healthy Eating and Active Living in New Hampshire Schools.

This important program also is celebrating five years of successfully providing New Hampshire schools with resources and technical assistance so they can improve their school nutrition and physical activity environment.

The name change will more accurately reflect the collaboration and partnerships we have developed with HEAL NH and other organizations and agencies.

Cheers for Peers provides a way for UNH Cooperative Extension staff to simply and immediately acknowledge the positive contributions co-workers make to each other, the work place, our clients, the organization and the University.

Recognition from co-workers for a job well done is especially valuable and can reinforce good work and build collegiality. Cheers for Peers is for all UNH Cooperative Extension staff, including support staff employed by a New Hampshire county.

Our Cheers for Peers winners, chosen at random from all names accumulated during the October, November and December quarter, are Claudia Boozer-Blasco and Suzanne Hebert. Congratulations also go to Sandy Trybulski and Julie Sabol for being randomly selected from the list of those who sent a Cheers for Peers card to a colleague. Contact Holly Young for your reward.

To recognize someone, go to the Staff Recognition page to learn more about the award in the Supporting Documents section.

UNH Cooperative Extension lost a long-time supporter and advocate last Friday when Ruth Kimball of Epsom died, surrounded by family, at Pleasant View Center in Concord.

Ruth was a homemaker and farmer's wife. Together with her late husband, she owned New Orchard Farm. Ruth dedicated her life to her family and serving the community.

Ruth started the Victory Workers 4-H Club in Pittsfield in 1942 and recently celebrated 67 years as organizational leader. In September, 2008, a ceremony was held at Hopkinton Fair renaming a building the Ruth H. Kimball 4-H Exhibit Hall to recognize her long-time support of the fair.

Ruth had many accomplishments over the years including the 4-H Alumnae Award, Pittsfield Citizen of the Year 1973, Merrimack County Governor's Award for Volunteerism, Farm Bureau Young Farmer's Award, The Granite State Award from the UNH in 1992, the JC Penney Golden Rule Award, National 4-H Hall of Fame 2002, and most recently, the prestigious Friend of 4-H Foundation of New Hampshire award. The photo at the right shows Ruth with me at a 4-H Foundation of New Hampshire annual meeting.

Also, in 1990, the Ruth Kimball Endowment Fund of the 4-H Foundation of NH was established as a lasting legacy to Ruth's dedication to the 4-H Program. Affectionately known as Gram to both adults and children, she had a very deep commitment to 4-H, exemplified in her motto, which was "I'll be glad to."

A celebration of Ruth's life was held Tuesday, Jan. 6, at the First Congregational Church in Pittsfield. The family requested donations may be made in her memory to the 4-H Foundation of New Hampshire, Ruth Kimball Endowment Fund, Moiles House, 180 Main Street, Durham, NH 03824.

I extend very best wishes to all members of the UNH Cooperative Extension family for a wonderful holiday season. Your service to the citizens of New Hampshire is important and commendable, and I want to thank you for your dedication, commitment and many contributions you’ve made this past year. I hope each of you take full advantage of the holidays to take a well-deserved break and enjoy your friends and family.

As we head into a New Year, the fiscal difficulties currently facing the state will likely create challenges for us as well, but we will face such challenges rationally and thoughtfully. We currently have a budget committee in place to review and make recommendations to the Leadership Team on where we can most effectively reduce costs, and as we continue to strategize, we will keep you informed. I remain committed to minimizing the programmatic impact of any cost reductions, and given the positive public support for UNH Cooperative Extension, I'm confident we will remain a strong outreach system making impacts important to New Hampshire people.

As we approach the holidays, we should take a moment to reflect on our many accomplishments this past year. Leadership Team approval led the way for the awarding of three high quality, outcome-driven proposals focused on priority issues facing New Hampshire and its residents. These projects were the result of a recommendation from the Strategic Planning Implementation Team and respond to significant issues facing the state.

We continued to welcome new faces this past year. At the county level, new staff included three new forestry and wildlife Extension educators, Deborah Goard, Strafford County, Andrew Fast, Belknap County, and David Falkenham, Grafton County. Also new to Extension this past year are Dawn Bozogan and Barbara Paronto, administrative support, Sullivan County; Lynda Bloom, administrative support, Coos County; Cheryl Gagnon, administrative support, Strafford County; Maggie Decker, administrative support, Hillsborough County; and Arianne Fosdick, volunteer management program assistant, Grafton County.

At the Family, Home and Garden Education Center, Denise Blaha joined our staff as the Energy Answers program coordinator. Energy Answers is one of our significant issues grants.

At the campus level, we welcomed Geri Farnell, Operation Military Kids (OMK) program coordinator; Marjorie Sawtelle, administrative support, Community and Economic Development, Food and Nutrition, and Agricultural Resources; Linda Beaudoin, administrative support, agricultural resources at Spaulding Hall; and Brian Krug, Extension specialist, greenhouse/floriculture.

I continue to be proud to lead an organization that brings meaningful impact to the lives of so many New Hampshire citizens. Despite the budgetary challenges we may face, we will continue to provide a wide variety of successful programs throughout the state in our role as a primary outreach unit of the University of New Hampshire.

We also lost a close friend and colleague, Brian Doyle, who will be deeply missed by us all. The Sea Grant Extension and Water Resources programs have been cited many times for their excellence, due in large part to Brian's wisdom and leadership. As we reflect on the past as well as the future, the loss of Brian is a reminder of how much we need to enjoy the present and value each other. You also may find of interest an article from Foster's Daily Democrat about Brian.

I look forward to working with you as we strive to become an even more effective and efficient educational outreach organization in 2009.

Two Extension staff join other UNH faculty members in the 2009 UNH Outreach Scholars Academy. Now in its fifth year, the Academy is a faculty development program, designed to enhance faculty success in outreach scholarship within the disciplines.

Brian Krug, Extension Specialist, Floriculture, and Paula Gregory, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development, will represent UNH Cooperative Extension this year in the academy.

The Academy will meet several times throughout the coming semester with a national expert, coaches and Outreach Scholars Academy alumni with the goal to identify, mentor and work with faculty from across the institution interested in outreach scholarship. Congratulations!

Given the recent drought in federal funds to support science and industry collaboration, UNH Cooperative Extension Sea Grant and the Northeast Consortium set out on a two-week tour to ask coastal communities the question, "How has collaborative research impacted your community?" Should this type of research continue and be supported by local, state and federal government?

Informal discussions were held in eight communities from Machias, Maine, to Chatham, Massachusetts. This project was significant because it was the first attempt to help individual coastal communities and the Northeast region consider the impact of collaboration and what future opportunities may await. It became clear from all who participated the impact has been great and the loss would be significant.

In addition to these meetings, a survey went to over 1,500 fishermen, scientists, fishery managers, non-governmental staff, and public officials in the focus regions and beyond.  Data was collated from the meetings and the survey responses, not only about the impacts of specific collaborative research projects, but on individual perceptions of the benefits of collaborative research, and the impacts that may result from a loss of funding.

Several common perceptions were held by the majority of participants. The ability for management and academic groups to conduct fisheries research has been dramatically enhanced by collaborating with industry. These collaborations moved well beyond an industry “taxi” service and now represent a true sharing of ideas from initial project development through field research. In addition to the social impacts of collaborative research, participants discussed economic benefits, including enhanced gear efficiency through gear design, new fisheries and fishing opportunities as in the ocean quahog, Atlantic halibut and shrimp fisheries, as well as collaborative research dollars to help sustain fishing operations.

Viewpoints from most participants felt that loss of funds would limit research capacity and the capability for science and management to address local immerging concerns or non-regulatory priorities.

Encouraging news include the return of the Saltonstall-Kennedy $5 million grant program to support priorities in aquaculture, fisheries socioeconomics, conservation engineering and right whale entanglement mitigation research. A new grant program is the Southern New England Collaborative Research Initiative of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation with an appropriation of just under $900,000. However, the Northeast Consortium, that provided the framework for collaborative fisheries research to the region, needs to continue to fund a broad range of fisheries initiatives throughout the Gulf of Maine.

The Family, Home and Garden Education Center and the Info-Line (1-877-398-4769) will be closed Monday, December 22, until Monday, January 5, 2009.

A holiday message with closing dates will be put on our phone system. Questions emailed to the Center will receive a similar message. The staff at the Family, Home and Garden Education Center wishes everyone a happy and healthy holiday season!

Claes Thelemarck is the new 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator in Carroll County. He will begin his new position Jan. 5.

Claes, who resides in Tamworth, received his BS from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, with a concentration in environmental and forest biology. He received his MS from Antioch New England Graduate School in environmental studies. Claes most recently worked at the Community School in South Tamworth as a teacher, interim director and dean of students.

Claes enjoys the outside and worked with the Appalachian Mountain Club for six years as coordinator of youth and school programs. As a strong believer in experiential learning and science, he will be instrumental in helping support 4-H's Science, Engineering and Technology initiative. He also is an Extension Covert's Cooperator.

Please join me in welcoming Claes!

UNH Cooperative Extension recently received the following grants and awards:

Alan Eaton, Extension Specialist/Professor, Entomology, received $5,000 from the University of Maine for the project, "PRO New England Pest Management Network." The project involves Integrated Pest Management (IPM) efforts in New Hampshire, promoting the PRONewEngland.org web site and pesticide inquiries. The University of Maine serves as the lead institution for this coordinated approach; other institutions involved include the University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts, University of Rhode Island and University of Vermont.

Ken LaValley, Extension Specialist/Assistant Professor, Commercial Fisheries Technology Transfer, received $4,000 from NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service, for a Northeast Tagging Symposium to discuss the incorporation of fish tagging data into stock assessments and fisheries management plans.

Val Long, Extension's FSNEP Nutrition Coordinator, received $8,000 from the NH Dept. of Education for the recently-held "Building Blocks" conference for food service directors and school nurses.

Val Long and Debbie Luppold, Extension Specialist/Professor, Food and Nutrition, received $774,083 from the NH Dept. of Health and Human Services for the "NH Food Stamp Education" program. This grant enables the NH Food Stamp Program, together with UNH Cooperative Extension, to provide food stamp recipients with the knowledge needed to use their food stamp dollars to feed their families nutritious meals. The core elements of the 2009 NH Food Stamp Nutrition Education plan are dietary quality, shopping behavior/food resource management, food security and food safety, and health lifestyle choices.

Julia Steed Mawson, Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development, received $75,149 from the Education Development Center, Inc. Extension, partnering with the Center, will be involved with afterschool students in grades six to eight in the greater Manchester area as they participate in science exploration of pond life and trees using experiential activities and digital photography. The grant itself was awarded to the Center from the National Science Foundation.

Julia Peterson, Extension Specialist/Professor, Water Resources, received $83,472 from the University of Rhode Island for "Northeast States and Caribbean Islands Regional Water Program - New Hampshire" project. Jeff Schloss, Extension Specialist/Professor, Water Resources, and Bob Craycraft, Extension Educational Program Associate, also are involved in the project.

Michael Sciabarrasi, Extension Specialist/Professor, Agricultural Business Management, received $173,000 from the USDA Risk Management Agency for the "NH Crop and Revenue Insurance Education" program.

Seth Wilner, Extension Educator, Agricultural Resources, received $40,000 from the University of Vermont for the "2008-2011 New Hampshire Sustainable Agriculture Program" for educators. This project seeks to build capacity for Extension educators and specialists in three primary areas: increased knowledge about regional research in sustainable agriculture production topics, increased knowledge in sustainable farm management techniques, and increased skills in on-farm demonstration projects.

Amanda Stone, Extension Land and Water Conservation Program Coordinator, received $30,000 from the NH Dept. of Environmental Services for the "Natural Resources Outreach Coalition: Program and Delivery."

Shane Bradt, Geospatial Technology Extension Specialist and Trent Schriefer, 4-H Youth Science and Technology Extension Specialist, offered a hands-on, 4-H youth-oriented GPS training recently in Laconia.

Operation Military Kids staff and 4-H educators attended the training, "Pictures, Points and Places," introducing a new "GPS Treasure Hunt" 4-H kit developed by Schriefer and Bradt.

Training provided opportunities to learn how to collect waypoints, navigate using GPS units and implement the GPS Treasure Hunt kit as a teaching tool. Following the 4-H experiential learning model, participants used 4-H owned GPS units to navigate GPS waypoints to discover the locations of the treasure (candy and tokens). This simple exercise introduced the concepts of GPS, navigation and the sport of "geocaching."

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which participants use a Global Positioning system (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches” or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container with a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 800,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to this pastime. Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

The goal of this training was to engage 4-H educators and OMK staff in geospatial technologies, provide materials to conduct youth programs in GPS and to further promote the 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology initiative.

The workshop participants in the above photo are shown with their new teaching kits. For information on partnering with 4-H SET, contact Trent Schriefer at trent.schriefer@unh.edu

Ken LaValley, Extension Specialist, Commercial Fisheries Technology Transfer, received the following grants:

Software for Objective Evaluation of Nearshore and Offshore Fish Farms - $69,800
This project, funded by the Northeastern Regional Aquaculture Center (NRAC) for USDA
Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Funding, will be used to develop a predictive tool to assess the potential for benthic and water column impacts of commercial scale finfish farming in open ocean environments. The project is a collaboration between UNH, URI, Dalhousie University in British Columbia as well as several private environmental businesses.

Technology Transfer in the Northern Shrimp Fishery - $5,000
The National Marine Fisheries Service and Maine Sea Grant Project Development Funds awarded $5,000 to facilitate the transfer of two conservation engineered fishing gears: the dual-grid system, designed by Pingguo He, Extension Specialist, Fisheries, and the non-parallel bar separator, designed by Maine commercial fisherman Kelo Pinkham and the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Both gear designs virtually eliminate bycatch of non-target species and instead, target the larger, higher-valued shrimp.

Belknap County Extension staff had the opportunity recently to share programmatic impact statements with county commissioners and their county Advisory Council as part of their annual budget request to the county.

The impacts reflect the work of educators and specialists for county and state-wide programs, making a difference and providing public value for the people living and visiting Belknap County. These impact statements were very well received.

All staff and the State Advisory Council have received an introduction to how UNH Cooperative Extension might better communicate the impact and subsequent value of the work we do not only to direct participants of our programs, but also to those who don't participate.

Other counties interested in developing a set of impact statements to use in their county reports, as tools for their advisory council members, or in other communication with stakeholders, should contact Lisa Townson at lisa.townson@unh.edu