Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

This fall saw the dawn of a new era at USDA as the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) replaced the 15-year-old Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service.

NIFA’s creation, mandated by the 2008 Farm Bill, is intended to invigorate and strengthen support for food and agricultural science in this country. The Institute’s first director is presidential appointee Dr. Roger Beachy, founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

NIFA’s unique mission is to advance knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being, and communities. NIFA provides program leadership in these areas and helps to fund research, education, and extension at land grant universities and partner organizations at the state and local level.

An important aspect of NIFA’s work is to promote a public understanding and appreciation of science, assuring that knowledge is available in the public sector to sustain food, agricultural, and natural resource systems.

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 – Looking for some free gardening advice? Has your well-intentioned ‘green thumb’ resulted in your garden looking a little brown? USDA has a cadre of volunteers who provide free gardening tips and have a wealth of science-based research to answer your questions. Trained by USDA’s Cooperative Extension Service, Master Gardeners provide information in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. To find a local Master Gardeners, visit www.extension.org/pages/Extension_Master_Gardener .

“Master Gardeners are a valuable resource for people who want to get some tips on gardening and growing their own food from a real expert,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Growing fruits and vegetables in your own garden not only promotes a healthier lifestyle, but helps communities develop a safe, nutritious and sustainable source of food.”

Full articles continues here

note from  Diana Bryant

This year we will be conducting a volunteer training workshop on: Sept. 9 – 13, at Cornell University’s Arnot Teaching and Research Forest VanEtten, NY (south of Ithaca in Schuyler Co.)
Applications due by Aug. 19, 2009

Volunteers can commute daily, or accommodations are available free. There is a $50 fee for attendance to help defray lodging, publications, food, and equipment costs of the 4-day training. Both workshops combine classroom and outdoor field experiences on a wide variety of subjects including; tree identification, finding boundaries, forest ecology, sawtimber economics, wildlife and sawtimber management, communication techniques, and a visit to a nearby sawmill.

If you know clientele you have worked with, or people from your association (including yourself) who would make good volunteers, please send me their names and addresses and we will send them an informational packet about the program and an application form. More information about the program is on the MFO website www.cornellmfo.info. Promotional information and application forms regarding the training are on that site by clicking on Volunteer Solicitation Materials.  Please consider using the press release in your organization’s e-mail releases and/or newsletters.

The goal of the MFO Program is to provide private, nonindustrial forest owners with the information and encouragement necessary to manage their forests to enhance ownership satisfaction. MFOs do not perform management activities nor give professional advice.  Rather, they meet with forest owners to listen to their concerns and questions, and offer advice as to sources of assistance based on their training and personal experience. The success of this volunteer program is grounded in the power of “peer” counseling. Knowledgeable and experienced forest owner neighbors can interact as unbiased peers with less-experienced forest owners. There are 199 active volunteers across NYS who annually interact directly with hundreds of neighbors and indirectly with thousands through various outreach activities, such as newspaper articles, educational workshops and work with youth groups. These informed and dedicated volunteers are a great resource in their communities to assist other organizations and agencies in promoting the wise use of forest resources.

Please take a moment as soon as possible to jot down a few candidates or forward this request directly to candidates. Your help is critical to the continued success of the MFO Program and contributes greatly to our collective mission of involving forest owners in wise stewardship.

Thank you very much!

Please send candidate Names and Addresses to:
Diana Bryant, 108 Fernow Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
Phone: 607-255-2115, FAX: 607-255-2815, E-mail: dlt5@cornell.edu

Check this article out. Did Cornell promote this soil bag growing a while back? What did we call it then?

…

By Chris McLaughlin

Is anyone out there in a hurry? Are you working three jobs, have seven children, or on your way to a fire? This no-dig planting method is the fastest way to a vegetable garden – a soil bag can be planted in under 60 seconds (I clocked it). Planting directly into a bag of topsoil is also easy and convenient.

Here’s the full article at Fine Gardening

http://www.theledger.com/article/20090313/COLUMNISTS/903135001/-1/TRAVEL?Title=Organic-Pesticides-Are-Not-Harmless

We have a regional Vegetable Specialist position we are looking to fill in eastern NY. This person would be on a two person team serving a 10 county area in the Capital District of NY. The focus is on fresh market vegetable production. For additional information please go to;

http://www.northeastipm.org/ipm_job_popover.cfm?id=695

If you have any questions about the position, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks, Steve –

Steve Reiners

Phone:315-787-2311

Associate Professor

Fax:315-787-2216

Dept. of Horticultural Sciences

NYS Agricultural Experiment Station

Geneva, NY 14456

Sony released anew Playstation game called “Flower,” which “explores the path of an urban flower that seeks to escape to the countryside.”

Click here for a video about the game.

Sony calls the game an “interactive poem, which uses abstract landscapes, and the flower is the gamer’s dream.”  According to Wired, “Flower lets the player explore the dreams of city blooms trapped in urban decay, longing to caress the soft grasses of the countryside.”

Sony designed the game to be “attractive and meaningful” for adults, and wanted to make it simple and accessible. Players can control the path of the flower, and its pollination of the landscapes. “The game explores the relationship between cities and nature, the complexities of ecology.”

Has anyone played this game? What do you think?

Our interested group is growing but you can still get in before we schedule our first time to conference call (likely January).

If you might be interested email lori (bushway@cornell.edu) and here a bit more about the certification…

Certified in Volunteer Administration (CVA) is the only international professional certification in the field of volunteer resources management. Originally developed by the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) several decades ago, the program is now sponsored by the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA). The CVA credential reflects mastery of the knowledge required of practitioners in this field as measured through an exam and peer assessment process. Full details at this website: http://www.cvacert.org

You can still get in on this…call Lori ASAP

Facilitating Meetings and Building Teams Training

Friday December 12th from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

This is a must attend training especially for your staff in Community Horticulture and Plant or Environmental Science 4-H Youth Development.

This training will help you plan and conduct meetings so you build effective teams to maximize your county programs impact.

This training is at the DEC Stony Kill Farm facility just south of Poughkeepsie so county associations in the Hudson Valley, Capital District and Long Island are especially encouraged to attend but it is open to CCE staff from across the state.

Participants will walk away with new strategies to immediately apply in our extension work.

Here’s their website with more information:

http://mastergardener.umd.edu/Handbook.cfm