Extension Launches New Wetlands Inventory/Evaluation Website

The NH Method: Practical wetlands guide updated and online

New Hampshire communities, conservation groups and natural resources consultants now have an updated, practical method for evaluating wetland functions. The NH Method, originally published in 1991, has been updated for the first time in 20 years through the efforts of its two main authors from UNH Cooperative Extension and the NH Method Work Group.

Wetlands play a key role in maintaining water quality, reducing the amount and volume of stormwater runoff, and storing floodwater to prevent downstream property damage. 

First update since 1991

First developed in 1991, the NH Method was long overdue for an update, according to one of the authors, Amanda Lindley Stone, UNH Cooperative Extension land and water conservation specialist.

"The NH Method is widely used in New Hampshire, so the update was needed to incorporate new information, studies and technologies. It also was an opportunity to incorporate feedback we have received from users over the years."

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Putting businesses on the digital map

Digital mapping workshop helps fishermen & other business owners move into the smartphone era

With all the tourists visiting the Seacoast this summer, it's a safe bet that many of them will touch the screen of their smartphone to find a local eatery that offers fresh seafood rather than flip through the local phone book.

Shane Bradt, geospatial extension specialist for UNH Cooperative Extension, presented information on how to put businesses on the digital map, giving fishermen and small businessmen the opportunity to reach new clients who are increasingly tech-savvy. Approximately 30 fishermen and small business owners attended the Fisheries Roundtable discussion on June 13th from 6-8 p.m. at the Portsmouth Public Library, co-hosted by the Northeast Consortium and N.H. Sea Grant.

For many business owners, marketing products and services to the public in the digital age can be confusing due to the increasing number of options and the pace at which they are changing, Bradt told the group.

A seismic shift in the way people find and access information

He says that while there is still value in traditional forms of advertising--in newspapers, flyers, phone book listings or roadside ads--the trend is turning away from these to focus more on computer-based information via the Internet home computers, cars' GPS systems, and on smartphones people carry with them wherever they go.

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Citizen Alert! Keep Looking for the Asian Longhorned Beetle

Learn to tell it apart from similar beetles

Forest health experts fear that an exotic pest called the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB), which made its way into the U.S. in wooden packing crates from China more than a decade ago, could move into New Hampshire and devastate our forest landscape.

Beetle not yet found in N.H.

"So far, we haven't found ALB in New Hampshire," says UNH Cooperative Extension entomologist, Dr. Stan Swier. "But since the beetle was discovered in Worcester and near Boston, Massachusetts, state and federal officials have mounted a massive eradication program there, expected to last many years and to cost tens of millions of dollars."

Beetle behavior

"The female ALB chews holes in the trunks and branches of many hardwood species--especially maples, but also birch, elm, ash, poplar, willow, horsechesnut, and many more--to lay her eggs," says Swier. "The eggs hatch, and the larvae excavate large galleries inside the tree, disrupting sap flow, weakening and eventually killing it. ALB attacks many hardwood trees, but is most common in maple and birch."

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High Risk for Ticks: Protect Yourself

The two most common ticks in New Hampshire (American dog tick and blacklegged tick) are both very active now.

Blacklegged ticks (see photo, greatly enlarged) spread Lyme disease, Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis, and possibly other diseases. Both the nymphs and adults of this species are active now, and Lyme-disease risk will peak in June.

The most important thing you can do to protect yourself from these diseases is to check yourself thoroughly for ticks at the end of the day and immediately remove any ticks you find.

According to Extension entomologist Alan Eaton, "The reason New Hampshire has the third-highest incidence of Lyme disease in the entire country is that too few people regularly check themselves for ticks. The age group with the highest incidence of Lyme Disease in New Hampshire is children five to nine years old, but all of us are vulnerable."

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