*  Three County Supervisors, the County Managers, all members of the County Advisory Board, invited guests, county faculty, and research center faculty assembled last Thursday in Graham County to review programs and set priorities.  The gathering and discussion of these 26 people is a good example of public input into County and Research Center Programs. 

*  At the "crack of dawn" on May 5th, the Pima County Extension faculty, staff and Master Gardeners were busily decorating, arranging furniture, watering plants and making strong coffee. By 7:00 a.m. folks were beginning to arrive for a bountiful Cinco de Mayo breakfast to celebrate the phase one version of the "Our Yard" project.  By 7:30 over 65 persons arrived representing the Southern Arizona green group, builders, county government, College faculty and administrators and especially Master Gardeners.  The plans were articulated by Cynthia Flynn, John Begeman and Patsy Waterfall, but the leadership for the entire morning was enthusiastically led by Sara Lee-Allen, the Master Gardeners Our Yard project leader.  This two acre project will evolve over the next five years and will continue to be funded by various sources.  The focus will be a ramada which could seat about 135 perhaps giving us a new venue for our County Extension Directors meetings. Congratulations to Cynthia and her group for a very successful event and an even more successful project. 

* A successful Southwest Indian Livestock Field Days was held in Gallup, New Mexico on April 28 and 29.  The program was one of the best ever, but the crowd was down a little with only 160 plus attending from livestock oriented tribes in Arizona and New Mexico . This event is sponsored by the Southwest Indian Agricultural Association, University of Arizona and New Mexico State University and is hosted by the Navajo Nation Department of Agriculture.  This is an excellent example of a number of organizations working together.  Arizona people involved were Roy Ax, Steve Campbell, Steve Etter, Esther Hubbell, Howard Jones, Bob Kattnig, Matt Livingston, Richard Rice and Frank Whiting.  Glenda Davis served as Chair and Eliza-Beth Washburne as Co-Chair, both are from the Navajo Nation. 

*  There will be a Desert Horticulture Conference on Friday, May 21, 1999, in the Chemistry Biological Sciences Building.  This conference is for all members of the Green Industry, landscape architects, designers, growers, retailers, contractors, maintenance personnel, and suppliers.  For more information, please consult the Website at: http://cals.arizona.edu/deserthort/, or call John Begeman at 520/626-5161. 

REMINDERS:   -  Arizona Agriculture Extension Association (AAEA) Summer Meeting is set for June 24-25, 1999.  It will be held in Safford this year.  Contact Rob Call or Lee Clark for details. 
 

James A. Christenson, Director 
jimc@cals.arizona.edu 
 
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