Tuesday Morning Notes

March 6th, 2001




A reminder that the Santa Cruz office now has their permanent phone and fax numbers (effective last Wednesday, February 28): 520-281-2994 (phone) / 520-281-2985 (fax). Their new address is: 3241 N. Grand Avenue, Suite 6, Nogales AZ 85621-3917.

* March 2nd, Dairy Day 2001 Educational Sessions were organized and coordinated by Bob Freitas and Ed Martin to aid the dairy producer in meeting the soon to be tightened surface water regulations under the NPDES Permit program. Cooperative Extension along with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Agua Fria-New River Natural Resources Conservation District, the Arizona Department of Agriculture and dairy industry representatives have been meeting for over a year on Animal Waste issues and are producing printed materials, workshops and initiating a Web site on the subject in order to provide technical assistance to producers. Although producer turnout was lower than expected, the sessions were well prepared and contained the highlights of what producers will need to know to be able to respond to upcoming ADEQ & EPA inspections. Roy Ax, Bob Collier, and Bob Kattnig helped man the UA booth. My thanks to all.

* Congratulations to Bob Greenberg on being awarded a $1,180 sponsorship to present a lecture during SummerFest 2001 Distinguished Lecturer Series sponsored by Extended University Summer Session office. Bob is on assignment with the Army School Age and Teen Project based in Hawaii but has worked throughout the Pacific Rim for the past 2½ years. Using media, Bob will present "The Army School Age and Teen Project Experience ­ Bringing Cooperative Extension to the Pacific Rim" in Marley Auditorium (Room 230) on July 2 from 2:00 to 3:30. His spouse, Jiang Ying, will present vocal music and cultural interpretation as a part of the event. There will be a reception following the lecture.

* Mesa Community College (MCC) is creating a Geographic Information System Technician Certification Program (GISTC). In an effort to benefit the state agencies and private industries that utilize Geographic Information Systems (GIS), MCC is in the final stage of developing a core curriculum to give the interested student a solid foundation in GIS concepts and software. As part of the Geospatial Extension Program, Barron Orr met last week with Steve Bass and Lara Merriam, who are leading this effort at MCC. Four longer-term objectives were identified in these meetings: a) use the GISTC as a prototype for other Community Colleges in Arizona, b) obtain funding to help equip instructional laboratories, c) evaluate the potential to add other geospatial technology modules (i.e. GPS, remote sensing, d) develop GIS workshops in support of Cooperative Extension.

* Congratulations to the Undergraduate Range Management Exam Team who won Second Place in the team competition at the annual international meeting of the Society of Range Management! Special thanks to Coach, Larry Howery.

* We recently sent out a survey to request your input on leadership programming for Extension. If you have not done so, I encourage you to complete the survey and send to Juanita O'Campo Waits at 4341 E. Broadway, Phoenix, AZ 85040 or fax at 602-470-8092, or e-mail her at jwaits@cals.arizona.edu.

* REMINDER: Program Enhancement Award proposals are due to Deborah Young by March 15, 2001. Guidelines are at: http://cals.arizona.edu/internal/programs/guide99.html




James A. Christenson, Ph.D.
(jimc@cals.arizona.edu)
Associate Dean and Director
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Forbes, Room 301
Tucson, Arizona 85721
520/621-7209
520/621-1314 FAX