Extension Updates

To assure that all of you are kept up to date on a regular basis, the three regional directors and the state Extension Administration Office provides bi-weekly Extension Updates. This forum is for all Extension announcements, so if you have something to distribute, please forward it to Lori Bates with FOR EXTENSION UPDATE noted.

July 30, 2014

On Behalf of CJ Mucklow:


DAC Meeting on August 20

The next Director’s Administrative Council (DAC) meeting is on August 20. This is the group that brings forward issues and concerns to administration to see what actions, if any, can be taken. If you have a concern about the organization you want to voice, you may contact your regional administrator i.e. me in the west, Bill in the Peaks and Plains or JoAnn in the Front Range. There are also agent representatives in each region if you need a little anonymity to bring forward a concern. Please feel free to contact any of us regarding an issue or concern.

Collaborative Conservation Partnerships in Colorado – Chaska Huayhuaca

I am contacting you from the Center for Collaborative Conservation (CCC) at Colorado State University. We are conducting an inventory of different types of collaborative organizations and processes in Colorado, and we would be grateful if you would give us your input on such efforts in your area.

For the purposes of our study, we define collaboratives as groups involving participation from wide range of stakeholders that pool resources through a sustained process of interaction or consensus building to generate creative solutions to shared problems or interests. These groups may be led by communities, non-profits, agencies, or a combination of actors. They may be focused on learning, visioning, planning, decision-making, coordinating, carrying out management actions, and/or monitoring related to water, forests, rangelands, agriculture, wildlife, or other natural resource or ecosystem issues.

Through an online search, we have already identified 147 groups in Colorado, which are listed alphabetically in a spreadsheet attachment to this email. We would appreciate you taking a look at this list and letting us know any collaborative groups (active or inactive) missing from this list by return email. Thanks so much for your time, we really appreciate it.

Regards,
Chaska Huayhuaca, M.S.
Program Coordinator, PhD student
Center for Collaborative Conservation
http://www.collaborativeconservation.org/
Colorado State University
(970)491-3983

Small Acreage Data Base Needs Help from Agents – John Rizza

The Small Acreage Program has developed a website for landowners to find contractors (weed control, seeding services, soil tests, etc.) in their area. We are happy to announce that the Small Acreage Services Database (SASD) website is ready for use, BUT it is not populated with many companies yet.

This is where we need your help. To make the website more useful, we want to ask as many businesses as possible to submit their profiles. If you have a list of contractors, please contact them and ask them to submit their business on our website. Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to submit a company.

We are hoping that you can help us populate the website with lots of businesses. If you don’t have time to contact your local contractors to tell them about this website, please forward us your list and we will contact them for you.

The sooner we have contractors and services listed on the website, the better tool it will be for landowners. Thank you for your help and please contact us with questions or suggestions to make this website user friendly.

Thank you!
John Rizza
CSU Ext./USDA-NRCS

Western Vacancies

Western Regional Agriculture and Business Management Specialist - This position has entered the final phase of selection with interviews being held July 23.

TRA Director - This position is an internal search and it closes August 4. If you have an interest in this position please contact me at 970-846-2358.

TRA Horticulture Agent - This position has been vacant since January 1 and we are now in the process of starting a search, likely to be advertised in late August and September.

Wildlife Specialist Update

The last time I wrote an Extension update I tried to get a sense of the need for a wildlife specialist again. I had several responses that there was indeed a need for a specialist like this. Wildlife conflicts abound, fact sheets are out of date and people look to Extension to provide this type of information. As there currently is no funding/budget for this, I am in the process of talking with and meeting with people from the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (DPW) to ascertain their interest in again funding a position like this. I don’t expect anything to happen quickly but I also haven’t been told no by DPW yet!

Unmarked Towers in Rural Colorado – Joanne Littlefield

A new law that will affect some farmers and ranchers in the state of Colorado. HB14-1216 Unmarked Towers in rural Colorado was signed into law on May 17, 2014 to protect low altitude pilots from difficult to see obstacles. The new law becomes effective August 6, 2014 for all new towers being erected, while all existing towers have one year (by August 6, 2015) to become compliant.

The law was enacted to protect the lives of low altitude pilots such as aerial applicators, emergency medical flight crews, aerial firefighting crews, military pilots, and many more.

Pinterest – Joanne Littlefield and Ruth Willson

Pinterest is the online venue that allows users to manage theme-based image collections that can include events, hobbies, and interests. Because people use pinboards to collect everything from recipes to garden ideas, our fact sheets could be a rich source of interest, however many of them don’t contain visuals to suit the nature of Pinterest.

One solution is that we encourage authors to use more visuals when fact sheets are being written, reviewed or revised. If they are looking for guidance on this, we often will seek out visuals for them, from our photographic archives or open, copyright-free sources online.

Another solution we’ve developed is to do a Google search for images that are free to use, share or modify. We are only doing this for the html version of a fact sheet, not the pdf (print quality) version. Click here for an example. If you are a fact sheet author and would like to see an image, or another image, on the html version of your fact sheet, please let us know.

If you have other ideas on how to include images and graphics in our materials, so that we can increase our exposure through social media, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

The Colorado State University Division of External Relations has developed many resources regarding social media. Click here to learn about Pinterest. Another resource for Pinterest users is the Pinterest Learning Center.

Colorado Agricultural Leadership Program (CALP)

Applications are now being accepted for Class 12 of the Colorado Agricultural Leadership Program (CALP). Individuals interested in enhancing their understanding of public affairs and developing their expertise to play a leading role in guiding the matters affecting Colorado agriculture and rural communities should apply. The program is open to any individual engaged in serving rural communities, production agriculture, all related agricultural industry and business, extension and education.

CALP is an intensive 2-year program composed of seminars delivered by Colorado's Agricultural industry. Fellows also participate in 7-days of national travel seminars and a 10-day international travel seminar. Seminars provide a comprehensive curriculum focusing on a variety of agricultural and leadership development subject matter. Participants are challenged to analyze public issues and industry matters from social, economic, cultural and political perspectives.

Updated