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You are here: Home / Newsroom / Newsletters / 2007 CSREES Updates / CSREES Update - September 19

CSREES Update - September 19, 2007

CSREES Update, from the Office of the Administrator, is a biweekly newsletter for research, education, and extension partners at land-grant universities and other cooperating institutions.

CSREES

  • Partners Video Magazine #19 - The Soil Explorers
  • U.S. Navy New CSREES Partner in the 4-H Military Project
  • CSREES NPLs Help Develop Latest OSTP Report
  • Youth Take Lead in Emergency Coastal Program
  • Paez Returns to CSREES
  • Ebodaghe on Detail
  • CSREES News
  • CSREES Lists Open Requests for Grant Applications

USDA

  • COLLECTION PAGE: Free Trade Agreements

Partners

  • Guam Names New CES Director
  • September NAIS Program Update
  • WRDC Publishes Series on Sustainable Rural Development
  • Newsletter Highlights 1890s' Community Development Work
  • LPE Learning Center Holds Value of Manure Webcast
  • Larew Receives FAS Honorary Award

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CSREES released its latest episode of Partners Video Magazine - The Soil Explorers - the quest to unlock the secrets of earth's living skin.

In Serious Sediment, Rutgers' Donna Fennell reclaims chlorine-contaminated sediments in New Jersey's urban meadowlands through smart environmental engineering and microbiological enrichment. Vineyard Wizards features UC-Berkeley's Yoram Rubin and others who are helping California wine growers map precious water vital to growing the best grapes by using earth-penetrating radar. And, in Microbial Observatory, researcher Jo Handelsman runs "microbial observatories" in Wisconsin and the wilds of Alaska to study underground microbes detrimental to healthy soils. CSREES national program leaders Nancy Cavallaro, Mervalin Morant, and John Sherwood served as script consultants to the project. The Soil Explorers is available in streaming video or DVD on the Partners Video Magazine Web page.

CSREES signed an agreement with the U.S. Navy Child and Youth Programs (CYP) to initiate the USDA/USN 4-H Youth Development Project this past July. Like existing 4-H partnerships with the Army and Air Force, this project is a collaboration of National 4-H Headquarters, 4-H faculty at land-grant universities, and Navy CYP staff.

4-H youth development professionals will take assignments at Navy locations to provide training and technical assistance for Navy staff and to support the establishment of 4-H clubs on Navy bases worldwide. The Navy will join Army, Air Force, and National 4-H Headquarters in providing Military 4-H club grants to state 4-H programs. CSREES is developing an agreement with the University of Hawaii to manage the Navy 4-H Youth Development Project. Contact Sherri Wright, CSREES national program leader in the Families, 4-H, and Nutrition Unit, for more program information.

Jim Dobrowolski and Mike O'Neill, CSREES national program leaders for Natural Resources and the Environment, were part of an interagency committee that developed A Strategy for Federal Science and Technology to Support Water Availability and Quality in the United States, the latest from the Office of Science and Technology Policy reports (OSTP).

The report provides a framework for future research, education, and science and technology needs related to water quality and availability. The report was developed by the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water Availability and Quality. The 64-page report is available on the OSTP Web site.

A CSREES partnership launched the 4-H youth emergency "Alert, Evacuate, and Shelter" program for coastal counties in the southeast United States. County 4-H youth teams, volunteers, staff, and community emergency managers representing Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Delaware attended the second in a series of multistate conferences. CSREES and the University of Maryland hosted the meeting. Land-grant faculty from Georgia, Nevada, Missouri, and South Carolina, who created the training and resource materials, conducted the 3-day train-the-trainer workshop. The teams will return to their communities to work with local emergency management teams and government officials to assist with outreach and technical assistance. They will also extend the "lessons learned" to other counties in their states. The trainings are supported by CSREES, land-grant universities, National Geographic Society Foundation, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), and MyStateUSA. Future conferences will reach all 12 coastal states identified by FEMA as high risk for hurricanes.

Dewell Paez returns to the CSREES Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) Unit as a permanent employee. He is a program specialist assisting in the areas of air quality, global change and climate, and soils. He was a participant in the USDA Public Service Leader program, which partners with the Hispanic College Fund. He worked summers in NRE to complete the necessary requirements to join CSREES as a permanent employee. 

Paez earned his B.S. in Agriculture and Biosystem Engineering and M.S degree in Soils from the University of Puerto Rico. He acquired experience on soil erosion and climate change research during previous studies at both the University of Missouri and the University of Puerto Rico . He is located at 3181 Waterfront Centre and can be reached at 202-401-4141, or e-mail dpaez@csrees.usda.gov. 

Denis Ebodaghe, CSREES national program leader for Small Farms in the Economic and Community Systems Unit (ECS), is on detail to USDA's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, as deputy director for the Center for Minority Farmers. Contact Patricia McAleer, program specialist in ECS, for Small Farms program information or questions. You can reach Ebodaghe at 202-205-9730, or e-mail denis.ebodaghe@usda.gov.

 

Funding Opportunity

Closing Date

Contact

National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program - Various topic areas

See individual grant program

See individual grant program

 

CSREES advertises all of its funding opportunities through "Find Grant Opportunities" on the Grants.gov Web site. This site is searchable and contains summary information on all federal funding opportunities with links to the full announcements. Users can search announcements by topic, funding agency, and date, as well as subscribe to an e-mail notification service based on these parameters.

 

This page has many resources pertaining to free trade agreements that are before Congress, including benefits of trade to states, agriculture, news releases, transcripts, and fact sheets.

Dr. Lee S. Yudin, dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences and director of Guam's Agriculture Experiment Station, will also assume responsibility for Guam's Cooperative Extension Service (CES), effective October 1.

Yudin began his career at the University of Guam as an assistant professor in 1989. He was granted tenure in 1995 and became a professor in 2003. His research was primarily in urban pest management, with an emphasis in the control of subterranean termites. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Hawaii.

As of September 10, states and Tribes have registered 416,178 premises in the USDA's National Animal Identification System (NAIS). USDA recently approved an additional manufacturer - Leader Products - to produce an animal identification number (AIN) tag for official use in NAIS. With this addition, USDA has approved eight AIN devices, including seven radio frequency identification (RFID) eartags and one injectable transponder. USDA entered into a cooperative agreement with Kansas State University and other participants to conduct a NAIS program benefit-cost analysis. The final report is expected in summer 2008. Visit the Extension-NAIS Resource Center 's Program Updates page, for more detailed NAIS program news.

The Extension-NAIS Resource Center provides NAIS information and resources for extension educators to enhance NAIS outreach initiatives. Check out the outreach tools, brochures, fact sheets, and other resources hosted on the Resource Center. A new feature on the Web site allows individuals to submit questions or comments about the NAIS program.

The Western Rural Development Center (WRDC) has begun a long-term focus on sustainable rural development, drawing upon existing research and knowledge. While no bibliography can be exhaustive Sustainable Rural Community Development: An Annotated Bibliography serves as the beginning of a collection that will be updated periodically. This ongoing effort provides key documents for the study and application of sustainable rural development that will help rural communities create and foster a positive future balancing economics, environmental integrity, and quality of life. This publication is part of a larger library available on the WRDC Web site that spans over 30 years. Visit the WRDC Web site to view the bibliography. Contact Sally Maggard, CSREES national program leader for Economic and Community Systems Unit, or John C. Allen, director, Western Rural Development Center, for more information.

The 1890 Community Development Program Team recently released the inaugural edition of the "1890 Community Reachout" newsletter. The newsletter highlights the community development work being done by the 1890 land-grant programs and partners. The first issue focuses on leadership and the feature article describes how Tuskegee University is building local leadership capacity within Macon County. Contact Gae Broadwater, Chair, 1890 Community Development Team, or Sally Maggard, CSREES national program leader for Economic and Community Systems, for more information.

 

The National Livestock and Poultry Environmental (LPE) Learning Center will hold a Webcast on "Value of Manure in Energy Production" on September 21. Livestock manure has been an energy resource since ancient times and modern technologies are being developed to capture even more of the energy value of manure. Environmental and economic factors will determine if potential technologies are suited for the farm production system in meeting the farm's goals and objectives. Kelly Zering, North Carolina State University, will present some important calculations to make when considering different manure treatment systems. William Boyd, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, will discuss the experimental technologies and situations where they may be most appropriate. Visit the Webcast flyer for more information. The LPE Learning Center is supported in part with CSREES funds.

 

Hiram Larew, CSREES International Programs director, received an outstanding team accomplishment award at USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service Honorary Awards Ceremony on September 6. The award recognized Larew and a group of colleagues from FAS for their outstanding team effort in launching the U.S.-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative and exceeding program objectives. 

For a plain text copy of this newsletter, please contact Judy Rude. CSREES UPDATE is published biweekly. The next regular issue is planned for October 3. Submit news items to newsletter@csrees.usda.gov by September 26, 2007.

Editor: Judy Rude, Public Affairs Specialist, CSREES Communications Staff. If you have questions about Update, please contact her at jrude@csrees.usda.gov.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter, please send an e-mail message to jrude@csrees.usda.gov. In the body of the message, type: subscribe csrees-update OR unsubscribe csrees-update.

Back issues of CSREES UPDATE are available on the CSREES Web site.

Colien Hefferan, Administrator

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 Questions? Comments? Last Updated: 03/18/2009