Park Romney has submitted his letter of retirement effective November 2005.
A plan of work has been developed for the next few months under the
management of the Director. We wish him well.
The Arizona 4-H shooting education program is being coordinated by a team of
Extension faculty, staff, 4-H adult volunteers and 4-H youth participant
volunteers led by Mike Hauser, Apache County 4-H agent and Larry Neuman,
Pima County 4-H volunteer and shooting education instructor team
coordinator. There will be two major events coming up this spring/summer: a
competitive shooting event at the Ben Avery Range in Phoenix on May 6-8,
2005 and the volunteer certification camp on June 3-5, 2005. For liability
and safety reasons an inventory survey will be conducted statewide to
determine where all of the firearms used with this program are held. I
encourage all counties to complete this survey on a timely basis.
My thanks to the following committee members who organized the Professional
Development day in Phoenix: Brent Strickland, Lisa Lauxman, Monica Pastor,
Steve Husman, Lynne Durrant, Susan Pater and Sheila Merrigan. Special thanks
to Patti B and Sandra Saad who provided logistics help. We also had a
productive CED meeting and a very thoughtful meeting on Focused Excellence
in Earth Sciences and the Environment. Notes will be forthcoming.
With the help of professional educational partners, the MAC Farm Water
Science Ag-Venture programs held last week were a great success. One
hundred and ten high school students from Maricopa and Pinal counties
learned how science and water combine to help Arizona thrive with arid land
agriculture. Career possibilities in agriculture were also presented to
promote educational opportunities available in the University of Arizona's
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In addition, MAC Farm
Water/Science Ag-Ventures also hosted 265 youth/adults from the Vail School
District, located east of Tucson. These programs were carried out in
cooperation with a research thesis being conducted by a Ph.D. student in
Arid Lands Research. It was a great experience for all. Ag-Ventures is
looking forward to involving educators and young people from your community.
Contact Vic Jimenez (vjimenez@ag.arizona.edu / 520-568-2273).
We want you to participate in Arizona Agriculture Literacy Day on March 29,
2005. Agriculturalists across Arizona will read the book "If It Weren't For
Farmers" to third grade students and then donate the book to the school
library. Students will get to meet someone involved in agriculture and ask
questions about your role in agriculture. Contact Monica Pastor by March
22 and tell her the school name and district plus and your mailing address.
After she sends you the book, you would then go to the school to read on
March 29, talk about your role in Arizona agriculture, donate the book to
the library and then fax in your form indicating the number of students
involved. This day is coordinated through UA Cooperative Extension and
funded by the Agri-Press Club donation to the Arizona Foundation for
Agricultural Literacy.