Our Community Horticulture Program Work Team Meetings are open to all of you and we strongly encourage your participation in our discussion on the afternoon of April 2nd and morning of 3rd in room 109 Rice Hall on Tower Rd. on Cornell Campus. Here is the agenda (pdf).

I’d like to call your attention to a couple of items. We will meet jointly with the Garden-based Learning Team most of the first day and cover topics relevant to both youth and adult efforts. You will see there is a little “homework” we are asking you to complete as we continuing with our theme of “telling our story.” Please bring along a tool you’ve used to assess outcomes, in any part of your program, to share with the group. Doesn’t need to be elaborate — I’m sure that people have some great ideas to share, and collectively, we’ll all learn from each other.

Please RSVP by March 31 if you plan to eat lunch and/or dinner with us so we can plan accordingly.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Lori

Tuesday, March 18,2008 Contact: Lori O’Connell (518) 402-8000

FUNDS EARMARKED TO BATTLE TERRESTRIAL INVASIVE SPECIES
DEC Grants to Finance Local Projects to Eradicate Troublesome Invaders

Ten municipalities and organizations will receive a total of $555,000 to help wipe out infestations of non-native terrestrial species across the state, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today. The Terrestrial Invasive Species Eradication grants will be used by recipients to help fight giant hogweed, mile-a-minute weed, pale swallow-wort and other invasive threats to New York’s ecosystems.

“Invasive species have far reaching environmental, recreational and economic impacts - they spread rapidly, out-compete native species, and disrupt native ecosystems and biodiversity,” Grannis said. “These grants will help local communities and environmental groups in their work with DEC to actively address this growing problem.”

Invasive species are non-native and can cause harm to ecosystems, food supplies, landscaping, industry and infrastructure. While some may pose a serious health risk, invasive species are a threat to New York’s biodiversity, second only to habitat loss. Invasives come from around the world and the rate of invasion is rising along with the increase in international trade that accompanies globalization.

In 2007, Grannis announced the availability of grants to municipalities, state agencies and not-for-profit corporations for projects that help eliminate infestations of invasive species. State funds can be used to pay for up to one half of the total costs of a selected eradication project. Grants for aquatic invasive species eradication programs were awarded separately earlier this year.

For the terrestrial invasive species grants, DEC received applications seeking almost $1 million. A competitive evaluation process ranked and prioritized the proposals for the $555,000 in available funds. The projects selected were viewed to have the best potential for achieving long-term reductions in the presence of invasive species.
The grant proposals selected for funding include:
Bronx County: New York Botanical Gardens - $100,000: to eradicate Armur corktree, Amur honeysuckle, Japanese honeysuckle and porcelain-berry from the New York Botanical Gardens.

Various counties: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Division of Lands and Forests) - $99,750: to eradicate common reed, Japanese knotweed, mile-a-minute weed and pale swallow-wort from 26 state forests across the state.

Delaware, Greene and Ulster counties: Eastern New York Chapter of The Nature Conservancy - $50,330: to eradicate black swallow-wort, bush honeysuckle, giant hogweed and mile-a-minute-weed from areas in the Catskills.

Nassau County:Nassau County Parks - $45,350: to eradicate mile-a-minute-weed from Garvies Point Preserve.

Putman County: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Division of Fish and Wildlife) - $8,000: to eradicate autumn olive, bush honey suckle, mile-a-minute weed and multi-flora rose from Cranberry Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

Jefferson County: Central & Western New York Chapter of The Nature Conservancy - $7,519: to eradicate buckthorn, bush honeysuckle, garlic mustard and pale swallow-wort from Chamount Barrens Preserve.

Bronx County: New York City Parks (Manhatten) - $15,000: to eradicate mile-a-minute weed from Pelham Bay Park.

Ulster County: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation - $100,000: to eradicate common reed, Japanese barberry, Japanese knotweed, Japanese stiltgrass, leafy spurge, multiflora rose and spotted knapweed from Minnewaska State Park.

Jefferson County: Town Of Cape Vincent - $30,000: to eradicate giant hogweed and pale swallow-wort from several sites in the Town of Cape Vincent.

Suffolk County: Long Island New York Chapter of The Nature Conservancy - $100,000: to eradicate autumn olive, black locust, garlic mustard, Japanese barberry, Japanese honeysuckle, Japanese knotweed, oriental bittersweet and Tree of Heaven from Cedar Point County Park.

The invasive species eradication grant program is among the first of many initiatives of the new Invasive Species Council. The Council’s first role will be to spearhead the attack on invasive species statewide by implementing the recommendations of the Invasive Species Task Force ( http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/6989.html ), which include organizing and funding regional partnerships for invasive species management, creating an invasive species research center, developing an invasive species database, and establishing an education and outreach program.

Grant awardees will still need to obtain any necessary State or Federal permits and complete review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), if required, in order to obtain reimbursement. For additional information, please call the DEC at (518) 402-9425 or visit the DEC’s Terrestrial Invasive Species Eradication Grant Program web page at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/32861.html .

This article is from the National Gardening Association newsletter “Moss in the City”

It highlights some seed basics as well as a few general rules to follow when starting from seeds indoors or outdoors.

Full article at this site.

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway: With plant species disappearing at an alarming rate, scientists and governments are creating a global network of plant banks to store seeds and sprouts - precious genetic resources that may be needed for man to adapt the world’s food supply to climate change.

This week, the flagship of that effort, the Global Seed Vault, received its first seeds here - millions of them. Bored into the middle of a snow-topped Arctic mountain, the seed vault has as its goal the storing of every kind of seed from every collection on the planet. While the original seeds will remain in ordinary seed banks, the seed vault’s stacked gray boxes will form a backup in case natural disaster or human error erase the seeds from the outside world.

Read the full article from the February 28, 2008 International Herald Tribune here.

See inside the vault here.

Don’t forget we are doing our little part for biodiversity by capturing your opinions about vegetable varieties. Our library of more than 5,000 variety descriptions and your opinions on some of them raises awareness of the value of seed diversity to our culture and food systems. Check out Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners website.

Cornell Mushroom Blog

Fungi get a lot of bad press. OK, so we’re responsible for the whole athlete’s foot phenomenon, but fungi do a lot of good, too. Like the friendly yeasts, who make beer, bread, and wine. And how about those tasty chanterelles? Even in the fullness of their horrific evilness, fungi are cool. That’s what we’re all about here.

This blog is for you, friends. It’s aimed at ordinary people with a tendency towards mycophilia. Sometimes we talk about delicious things, sometimes awful things. At times we may get a bit academic–after all, this blog emanates from the Ivory Tower. Go ahead! chastise us or ask clarifying questions by leaving Comments, that’s what they’re for.

Mushrooms are seasonal and have patchy distributions; this blog is the same way. It’s written by a loose collective of faculty, staff, and students (view staff manifestos here), and embellished with images, objects, and movies that mostly come from our talented departmental photographer, Kent Loeffler. We suggest you subscribe to receive notification of new posts. We do maintain copyright over our content, but it’s ok to use our images in teaching (please give us credit). Contact the Editor about other uses. You’ll find answers to some FAQs about fungi and Cornell on our Contacts page. This blog is a place for fungi to share their stories.

The Editor, Kathie Hodge

CCE Educators

Are you looking for attractive, fun and informative educational displays to add to your next event (plant sale, fair, workshop…)?

This series of (24′x 28″) posters was originally part of a “landscape bloopers” display produced by the Pesticide Education Program of Penn State University for the 2007 Philadelphia Flower Show. The Northeast IPM Community Horticulture working group decide to devote resource to make copies of them more widely available to Extension Educators in New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. The posters are fully laminated with weather proof material. If you are interested in borrowing the set please contact well in advance of your event Max Welcome in the Department of Horticulture at (mw45@cornell.edu) or 607.255.5439

See all the posters at this website.

This article from the journal of extension might be of interest as you search for evidence to support your program proposals…. it notes:

“These results suggested that one useful social market strategy would target homeowners with information on IPM practices and promote it as a sensible step in safety and caring for the quality of surrounding lakes. ”

and check out their public education website highlighting that sometime to quite perfect is just right…

http://www.askaboutipm.info/

“The focus of the site is to present the idea of IPM in an amusing manner in order to catch people’s interest and to provide them with a way to search out the many sources of information about environmentally friendly lawn care. Each quick card has a picture and phrase such as: “Mom, the Joneses have some dandelions,” “Relax! It’s just a dandelion,” and “I need a dandelion to make my wish.” The back of each quick card works to associate the phrase IPM with “healthy lawn” and other words such as “safe,” diverse,” and “natural.”

“Project results also suggest that two useful future outreach efforts might be 1) the development of “rainy day” and modular IPM trainings for part-time landscape laborers; and 2) research into the potential of a “green label” program that might provide landscapers who use IPM with market recognition for their expertise and efforts, and continue to improve the success of motivated landscapers who would like to use IPM and would do so with more support from their customers. “

…edited by Richard Bonnano and specialists from across the Northeast, 2007. A 50 page comprehensive pest identification guide that can be carried to the field to better identify pests and select appropriate management measures. It contains color photos of all of the insects, diseases, and weeds that are described in the region’s various Vegetable Management Recommendations, including photos of weeds at the seedling stage and disease symptoms on different crops.

Available from the Univ. of Mass. Bookstore (413-545-2717, umassextensionbookstore.com); $10.00 plus $5 shipping and handling (bulk rate: 80 copies @ $5 apiece plus shipping and handling).

DO YOU THINK THERE MIGHT BE ENOUGH INTEREST THAT OUR COMMUNITY HORTICULTURE PWT SHOULD BUY 80. I am not sure what shipping might them be but it might reduce the books from $15 to maybe $8?

Dear Friends, once again the New York State 4-H Foundation invites you to submit your grant application proposals. All the information and application forms can be found on the state website at the following location: http://www.nys4hfoundation.org/county_grant_program/index.php
The application deadline is April 1. Priority will be given to programs that are innovative and directed at one of the three program priority areas of science, engineering and technology, youth community action, or heathy lifestyle education. You may want to use the Guiding Principles for 4-H Youth Development as a guide to the program outcomes in each of the content areas. Close alignment to the outcomes will help to strengthen your chances of funding.
http://nys4h-staff.cce.cornell.edu/documents/Guidingprinciplesfinal_001.pdf

Please contact either myself or Ruth Campbell ( 255-0786) if you have questions about the submission process.

Barb
Barbara Schirmer
Assistant Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension
State Program Leader, 4-H Youth Development
Cornell University, 340 Roberts Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
phone: 607-255-7958
fax: 607-255-0788
http://nys4h.cce.cornell.edu/
http://4hchoosehealth.blogspot.com/
CCE childhood obesity prevention campaign

Cornell University is extending the search for a senior person to assume responsibility for supervision of both the state’s Agricultural Education and Agriculture in the Classroom programs and staffs. This is a unique opportunity for a visionary leader with solid people skills, management experience, and experience with and interest in both classroom teaching in agriculture and agricultural literacy. The position announcement is included below and is also available on this Cornell web site.

The rank of Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University is a non-tenure accruing position but is eligible for a multi-year, renewable employment contract. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled but will be reviewed beginning March 26. The new Director can begin work as soon as he or she is available, preferably no later than July 1 of this year.

Along with a letter of application and curriculum vitae or resume, applicants should provide a list of at least 3 references including positions, addresses, telephone, and e-mail contact information. Letters of recommendation are NOT required.

Please feel free to distribute this to anyone you think might be interested in this opportunity. Feel free to contact me for more information on the position.