Congratulations to Chris Jones for his leadership on the Growing Smarter
Volunteer Collaborative. Chris had a vision of utilizing the expertise of
Community Planning students from all three state Universities with guidance
from their Professors to work with rural communities to prepare a
Comprehensive Plan in accordance with the Growing Smarter Act. The three
communities that utilized this program were Coolidge, Camp Verde and
Snowflake. At the recent meeting to evaluate the effectiveness of the
pilot project, Chris was given glowing reviews by all who participated.
The financial grant from Cooperative Extension, along with Chris' guidance,
ensured that this was a successful program.
* Congratulations to Jennifer Jones, John Palumbo, Kai Umeda, Patrick Clay
and Peter Ellsworth for receiving a $70,000.00 grant from USDA-CSREES. The
title of the proposal is: Coordinated Development and Delivery of
Cross-Commodity IPM Concepts.
* Congratulations to Jolie Ogg Graybill and Bryan K. Chadd on successful
2-year funding in the amount of nearly $200,000 from AT&T's Family
Development Fund to create "Teen Zones" in 10 East Valley High Schools. The
program will focus on Maricopa 4-H staff and teen leaders providing a cool
place for teens to go while developing workforce prep issues such as
resumes, interviewing, job shadowing, stress, character counts, and
internships with AT&T and other large businesses/corporations in the East
Valley area. Special thanks to Lisa Lauxman, Julie Adamcin, and Bill
Peterson for their contributions in the early stages of the process.
* Gila, Yavapai and Coconino Counties will be holding the Arizona
Highlands Garden Conference 2000 at the Tonto Natural Bridge (near Payson),
September 7 and 8. Please link onto the following website
www.cals.arizona.edu/gila/conference2000 to sign up! Your support in getting
the word out is greatly appreciated. Please register, they would love to
have you! For more information, contact Chris Jones, ANR Extension Agent,
Gila County, at 520-425-7179.
* Workshop on Rural Land Issues. "Doorways to Dialogue" A Workshop on
Rural Land Use Issues co-sponsored by Cooperative Extension and the Udall
Center for Studies in Public Policy will be held September 13-15 at the
Campus Agricultural Center, 4101 N. Campbell Ave., Tucson, AZ. You can
obtain a workshop brochure and application by going to:
http://udallcenter.arizona.edu/extensionapplication.html, or by calling
George Frisvold (520) 621-6269 or Rachel Yaseen (520) 884-4393.
Application deadline August 4, 2000.
* The International Arid Lands Consortium (IALC) is currently funding
FY2001 Research and Development Projects and FY2000 Demonstration Projects.
It is anticipated that more than $700,000 will be available. The deadline
for receipt of all proposals is November 15, 2000. Some examples of
program areas that will have been previously funded include: a) Land
Conservation, b) Land Use, c) Water Resources Development, d) Water
Resources Conservation, e) Water Quality, f) Inventory Technology, g)
Ecosystem Processes Supporting Sustainable Management, and h) Enhancements
of Sustainable Management of Ecological Systems and their socioeconomic
dimensions. Faculty members may want to consider submitting a proposal.
Contact Jim Chamie in Tucson at 520/621-3024 for copies of the research
and/or the demonstration FY2001 Request for Proposals, or to obtain more
information. Also, information is posted regarding the availability of the
RFPs on the IALC Web site at: http://ialcworld.org.