Brad Schultz Extension Educator Humboldt County

1. Cooperative Extension Programming in Humboldt County and Nevada: An Overview for the President and Stakeholders Brad Schultz Extension Educator Humboldt County

2. EE Position Description • Teaching and Administration (70%) • Conduct Needs Assessment • Develop and Implement Programs focused upon local needs and issues • Report impacts • Oversight for 4-H program • Office and budget management • Scholarly Activity (25%) • Develop scholarly products that support teaching program • Resource acquisition to support programs • Service (5%) • Develop professional networks • Local, regional, and national committees • Department, College and University Committees

3. Needs Assessments • Humboldt County (2001) • Maintain access to Federally Administered Rangelands for Traditional Uses • Grazing Management • Noxious and Invasive Weeds • Reseeding with introduced vs native species • Youth Education for Natural Resources and Agriculture • Program Delivery – How • One-on-one contact • Small group sessions • Field tours, demonstration and research plots • Extension publications • Magazines or trade journals

4. Needs Assessments • Vegetation Management and Disturbance -2005 • Reduce risk catastrophic fire • Vegetation resilience • Reseeding with natives vs introduced species • Role of fire and other disturbances in managing vegetation

5. Needs Assessments • Nevada Noxious Weeds -2009/10 • Weed control with herbicides, alternative methods and integrated approaches • Weed Identification • Preventing weed invasion and establishment • Primary focus • Perennial pepperweed, • Russian knapweed, • Hoary cress • Medusahead

6. Rangeland Resources Program • NV sage-grouse planning • Chaired north-central NV planning group • Sagebrush Management • State and Transition Models • Fuels and Fire Risk • Grazing Management • Nevada Range Management School • Nevada, Idaho and Morocco • Input to BLM and USFS NEPA documents • Post-fire grazing – when and how • Fall grazing of cheatgrass

7. Rangeland Resources Program • Annual Forage Loss Assessments for FSA • Electronic information dissemination • Western Rangelands Partnership • E-Xtension Rangelands Community of Practice • Great Basin Science Delivery Project • Nevada Youth Range Camp • Pine Forest Wilderness Working Group

8. Noxious Weed Management • State-wide identification handbook • Research and demonstration plots • Perennial pepperweed • Russian knapweed • Leafy spurge • Cheatgrass • Analyzed Statewide NA down to county level and proved the results to each county • NDOA Pesticide Applicator Training • Weed Management Component • Collaborations with the PVWCD, Gerlach CWMA and Humboldt Watershed CWMA • Paradise Valley Medusahead Project • Joint Project Between UNCE, PVWCD, USFS and BLM • Guest lectures @ UNR, Invasive Plants Class

9. Youth Education Natural Resources and Agriculture • Nevada Youth Range Camp • Humboldt County Ecology Day • 4th grade students, 8 modules • Ag in the Classroom • 3rd grade students

10. Winnemucca Futures Project • UNR Small Business Development Center • Scenario Planning Approach to Community Development • Represent the Ag and Natural Resource Component (i.e., Natural Capital) • Seat on the HDA and regular interaction with the Humboldt Small Business Development Center

11. 4-H Program Sharon Barton, County Funded Program Assistant • Large animal • Small animal • Horse • Dog • Lego robotics (STEM) • Cooking • Sewing • Community Club • Arts and Crafts • Quilting • Photography • Dairy Goats • Ambassadors • Livestock judging • Junior Master Gardeners • Clover Buds • Shooting Sports

12. Other Program Support • Connie Beck – County Funded Administrative Assistant • Horticulture • Master Gardener • Grow Your Own • Pest and disease issues • Radon • Just in Time Parenting • Video Meeting Schedules • Area and often Extension Wide • Manages’ Brad • Project Magic -Candace • Led by Marilyn Smith, Elko

13. Program Impacts • Developed the procedure used to complete Risk Assessments for 18 Sage Grouse population management units • Instigated development of the Montana Mountains Fuels Management Project • Authored a paper used by a Committee of Sagebrush Ecology Scientists to brief USFWS about the quality of science used to list sage-grouse as threatened or endangered • 71% of Range Management School attendees incorporated information into their job or operation

14. Program Impacts • RMS training in Morocco resulted in a new grazing system, replacing decades of season-long use (Natasha Marwah, USFS) • Improved content, quality and collaboration during development of Winnemucca BLM RMP, Montana Mountains Fuels Management Project and Thomas Canyon Fire Rehabilitation (Jeff Johnson, BLM) • Pine Forest Working Group (Jim Jeffress, Trout Unlimited) • Removed over 1,000 acres from potential wilderness designation • Retained a road between two WA’s instead of closing and consolidating into one WA • Language in Bill Draft to use mechanized equipment to mange and control noxious weeds

15. Program ImpactsForage Loss Assessments “Without Mr. Schultz’s assessments, Nevada would be unable to meet the requirements (two independent assessments) of the Non-Insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP program). Mr. Schultz has been a great assistance because he provides prompt, clear, concise, well documented and easy to understand assessments (Katie Nuffer FSA).”

16. Program ImpactsWeed Control Expenditures in PV

17. Program ImpactsCertified Pesticide Applicators

18. Program Impacts • Sustained Funding for large scale weed control efforts at Chimney Dam Reservoir, Bullhead Ranch, and Paradise Valley • Products Developed for Establishment of an EDRR program • Weed identification handbook • Weeds to watch posters • Empirical data about the effectiveness of early vs late control • Data about seed viability and longevity

19. Scholarly Activities • Refereed Journal Articles: 4 • Refereed Extension Publications: 71 • Refereed NV Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletins: 1 • Refereed WAFWA Papers: 1 • Refereed e-Xtension Publications 12 • Conference Proceedings Papers: 10 • Weed Research Progress Reports: 2 • Trade Journal Articles: 15 • Topical Reports: 28 • Extension Informational Publications: 2 • Conference Presentations: 74 • With Published Abstracts 63 • Invited 20 • Funding • > $1 million in grants, assistance agreements and donations • $200,000 funding enhancements from CC for weed control

20. State Funds for UNCE

21. Faculty Reduction 2009-2014 38 FTE’s

22. Implications: Effects of Budget Cuts • Major cuts in UNCE staffing • All geographical areas • All program areas mandated by Nevada state law • Reduce UNCE’s partnership capacity • Less grant acquisition • Less value to Nevada’s rural and urban communities • More time obtaining and managing money • Less time focused on local needs and issues • Residents will have less access to community-based faculty

23. Proposed Realignment • Move Cooperative Extension into CABNR • CABNR, AES and CE all under one dean • Committee of UNCE and CABNR administrators and one faculty member from each unit • Meeting weekly for 8 weeks • No written plan with details in changes for Extension’s mission, geographic and topical areas of focus, primary audiences, shortcomings or other operational functions • Strengths or weaknesses and potential effects are unknown, without adequate details to analyze • Can’t provide an honest assessment or opinion at this time.

24. Brad’s Considerations for Restructuring • Will it maintain Cooperative Extension’s focus of addressing local needs and issues? • Does it increase and/or improve access to all of the knowledge resources of the University? • Will it improve collaboration and communication between campus and UNCE

25. Questions