Professional Development Program
The Western SARE Professional Development Program is based at the University of Wyoming Torrington Research & Extension Center near Torrington, Wyoming.
Jim Freeburn, PDP Coordinator and the PDP staff administer Professional Development Program grants aimed at helping Cooperative Extension Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service and other appropriate agricultural professionals with agencies and nonprofit organizations, increase their understanding of and proficiency in sustainable agriculture.
Freeburn is assisted by Al Kurki in Montana, Val Peterson in Torrington and Joleen Pantier in Laramie. In addition, he and the PDP staff work with 17 SARE PDP Coordinators in the region's 13 states and four Pacific island protectorates.
Torrington R&E Center is evolving to become the University of Wyoming Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center, or SAREC, emphasizing integrated and interdisciplinary research and education on its 3,800 acres. This field laboratory, with irrigated cropland and nonirrigated cropland, rangeland and feedlots for both cattle and sheep, is thought to be the only facility of its kind. It will enable users to address a wide array of issues and questions at a single site. Its mission: "SAREC will serve the citizens of Wyoming, the region and the nation by facilitating innovative discovery, dissemination and engagement of integrated agricultural systems that are ecologically sound, economically viable and socially acceptable."
The Western SARE Professional Development Program is committed to serving the educational needs of sustainable agriculture in the Western region. If you have questions, observations or concerns, we want to hear them. Please contact us.