2018 winter quarterly report mason · the cil website is being reimagined and rebuilt with a more...
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Winter 2018 Quarterly Report
Dan Teuteberg, Interim County Director, [email protected], 360‐427‐9670 Ext. 686
303 N 4th Street, Shelton, WA 98584, 360‐427‐9670 Ext. 680 http://extension.wsu.edu/mason
Facebook pages: Mason County 4‐H ~ Mason Noxious Weeds ~
Mason County Small Farms ~ Mason County WSU Master Gardeners ~ Community Intelligence Lab of Mason County
Mission
Washington State University Extension Mason County helps people put research‐based knowledge to work, improving their lives, communities, and the environment. To realize this mission, faculty and staff plan, conduct and evaluate research and experience‐based educational programs to improve the lives of Mason County residents. WSU Extension Mason County also employs the assistance of hundreds of volunteers and community partners and provides access to the resources available at Washington State University and the National Land Grant University Extension System.
Partnership
Mason County and Washington State University have a long‐standing partnership in providing educational programs and research‐based information to residents throughout the county. This partnership ensures that resources are committed from Federal allocations and University funds to keep important educational programs available in Mason County.
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Program Updates
Community and Economic Development Staff: Justin G Smith, PhD, Regional Specialist ‐ Assistant Professor
Reid Tissing, CIL Program Coordinator and Software Specialist
Updates:
The Community Intelligence Lab is currently working to expand and target its reach. Reid met monthly with members of the Mason County EDC and Chamber of Commerce on a monthly basis to discuss the current state and future of the Enterprise for Equity program. He presented to two of the graduating classes from the Enterprise for Equity program, to inform new business owners of the assistance that the CIL can provide. We’ve had several follow‐up meetings with graduates regarding website construction and application development. In conjunction with two other Extension professionals, we presented and recorded a live webinar on data analysis for the general public, which can be accessed at https://youtu.be/M9y5S4lOuAA. Justin and Reid wrote and submitted a Journal of Extension article on machine learning algorithms, which was approved. The CIL website is being reimagined and rebuilt with a more accessible and robust layout. Our crowd‐sensing app is still in beta, but fully available at www.emplace.io. We’ve also worked with Grays Harbor on beginning a climate change impact study for that area. The CIL Facebook group continues to grow and has over 550 members.
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4‐H Youth Development Program Staff: Dan Teuteberg, Interim County Director, Regional Specialist‐Assistant Professor
Kathy Fuller, Program Coordinator
Updates:
Mason County 4‐H volunteers have been busy mentoring the youth of the 4‐H FIRST Robotics Team in preparation for upcoming competitions. These talented high school students are working side by side with trained 4‐H volunteers to design and build a robot that will compete against other teams in a high‐energy environment. Robotics is the ultimate sport for the mind and combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources and time limits, the team of students must raise funds, hone teamwork skills, and build and program a robot to perform tasks as indicated in this year’s “Power Up” challenge. It is as close to “real‐world” engineering as a student can get. This year’s challenge, will find teams trapped in an 8‐bit video game. Each three‐team alliance will work to defeat their competition by tipping a scale or switch, exchanging power cubes for power ups, or scaling a tower. Youth are learning and using sophisticated hardware and software while developing skills relating to design development, project management, programming, teamwork, strategic thinking, and cooperation.
4‐H Shooting sports is all about safety first — but lots of fun! The
Shooting Sports project includes many options for 4‐H members and
promotes total family involvement. Youth learn safe gun handling skills,
and sound fundamentals of shooting under the guidance of caring and
certified adult volunteers. 4‐H Shooting Sports is a youth development
educational program that promotes positive youth‐adult interaction and peer leadership. The focus of
the Mason County 4‐H Shooting Sports program is the total development of the young person. The
shooting sports and related natural resource activities are utilized as a vehicle for personal growth and
development. 4‐H volunteers recently completed rigorous training and education sessions to become
Certified Shooting Sports Instructors. The Mason County 4‐H Shooting Sports project commenced on
February 17 with an inaugural meeting and open house.
To assist new and current 4‐H volunteers, staff provided educational training sessions. These sessions provided volunteers tools to ensure a successful 4‐H year. Topics covered included communication systems, State 4‐H policies, club structure, and more. Contact was made with each 4‐H volunteer club leader to assist in planning for the 4‐H year.
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SNAP Ed Nutrition Staff: Christine Ciancetta, SNAP‐Ed Program Coordinator
Pamela Bish, Educator
Gabrieal Volpe, Educator
Updates:
QUICK FACTS Youth Need ∙ County Health Rankings (2017) indicate that a full 27% of Mason County children live in households that lack the resources to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. This compares to 16% of kids in the state overall. ∙ While Washington State reported a decrease of 2% for children living in poverty, Mason County reported a 3% increase from 2016 data. ∙ Specific risk factors for Mason County youth include higher consumption of sweetened drinks than state averages, low rates of breakfast and fruit and vegetable consumption, and low rates of physical activity. Adult Need ∙ SNAP‐Ed Department of Health Regional Needs Assessment recorded health risk factors including adults without work or insurance and food insecurity. There are 11,440 Basic Food Clients in Mason County from the period July 2015‐June 2016. ∙ This assessment also demonstrated that adults in Mason County have a number of health risks including poor nutrition, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and physical inactivity, heart disease and living with a chronic disease. These account for seven of eight measures reviewed. SNAP‐Ed Goal With Regional and County data pointing to persistent negative outcomes, our overall goal is to create a healthy food and physical activity environment in Mason County that links SNAP‐Ed programming between our partners. To the fullest extent possible, we seek to provide opportunities for learning about healthy behaviors while simultaneously creating school and community spaces that are venues for reinforcing and practicing these behaviors to create sustainable, long‐term change. Programming Highlights ∙ Schools o National Smarter Lunchroom Design (SLD) ‐ WSU educator Gabrieal Volpe, requested materials in Spanish to use with our Spanish‐speaking population. Though no materials were available, WSU provided information to advocate for them. The result is that the National Smarter Lunchroom program took on a large scale, national project to create Spanish language materials for early learning environments. Roll out will begin with a national training webinar in mid‐March in English followed by a Spanish language webinar in early April. Spanish language materials expected to be posted at the end of February. ∙ 2017 Contacts o 1,768 direct education o 6,948 indirect education
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∙ Community o Shelton Farmers Market and Farm Stands ‐ Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program – Distribute free $40 in coupons to seniors who apply for the program. Redeemable at farms, farm stands, and farmers’ markets. Mason County receives a disproportionately low percentage of vouchers in the Mason, Lewis, Thurston district. WSU is beginning a project whose goal is to increase voucher distribution. This not only puts additional funds into the hands of needy seniors, it also adds to increased economic impact on our agriculture businesses.
o Saint’s Pantry Food Bank ‐ The WCC, Prison Garden Program donated in excess of 25,000 pounds of fresh, local produce to our food banks in Hood Canal and Shelton areas. This is the most donated produce any correction facility garden has produced for donation ‐ nationally. WSU staff surveyed food bank clients to find out vegetable preferences and the WCC garden program used this information to further meet the needs of our community. o Shelton Timberland Library – Plan, Save, Shop & Cook class ‐ Free nutrition and food resource management classes. New initiatives include an on‐line sign up and partnering with the Friends of the Shelton Timberland Library and Saint’s Pantry Food Bank to provide ingredients for participants to Take and Make a meal together at the close of class. This allows participants to practice new learning and bring home a healthy meal. ∙ 2017 Contacts o 735 adult direct education o 25,788 indirect education
Food Safety & Food Preservation Program Staff: Lisa DeWall, Office Manager, Food Safety and Preservation Information Assistant
Updates:
Check pressure gauges on Monday’s from 10‐12, to ensure safe operations. This continues to be a good community resource to ensure proper education on food safety and preservation. Provide resident’s current up to date research based answers to their home canning questions to reduce risk of food borne illness.
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Master Gardener Program Staff: Jeannine Polaski, Master Gardener Coordinator
Updates:
January saw the start of the increasingly popular Master Gardener sponsored Through the Garden Gate educational workshop series. The six sessions run on alternate Saturdays through the end of March. They are held at the Public Works building and cover topics ranging from growing various types of fruit, attracting much needed pollinators, methods to extend the growing season along with other landscaping and gardening topics. The turnout has increased from last year with roughly 65 people attending each session, a 30% increase. This year a hands‐on “Build a bug Hotel” session was added with tremendous success. Bug Hotels provide a space for beneficial insects and pollinators to live. Participants were provided with all of the materials, tools and instructions and then made their own custom hotels with the help of Master Gardeners.
A new class of Master Gardener Interns are wrapping up their WSU coursework along with 10 hands on session and will graduate on March 23. We have ten new Mason County Master Gardener volunteers coming on board. When they complete 60 approved volunteer hours we are excited to have them join the ranks as Certified Master Gardeners to further benefit the residents of Mason County.
“Build a bug Hotel" session
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Noxious Weed Program
Staff: Patricia Grover, Program Coordinator
Keith Reitz, Assistant
Updates:
Although many noxious weeds are dormant during the winter months, the Mason County Noxious Weed Control program is active finalizing reports and preparing for the year ahead. Reporting, including the annual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), the WSDA Knotweed funding report and the report for the Olympic National Forest Participating Agreement are nearly complete. Key metrics for the year included: 1,161 public contacts at seven events during 2017
Publication of three noxious weed articles in the Shelton‐Mason County Journal
Knotweed control assistance provided to 62 property owners
Knotweed control implemented on 19 acres and 4.4 miles of shoreline/river representing 86
parcels
63 letters or postcards sent to Mason County property owners with noxious weed issues
139 acres of National Forest land surveyed 103 acres of National Forest land treated
Winter provides a perfect opportunity to plan an integrated weed management program (IWMP) and the Mason County Noxious Weed Control can advise you on the design of an IWMP specifically designed for your property. To better understand public awareness of the Mason County Noxious Weed Control program, an online survey was created. It can be found at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GH5C5XH
Oysterfest 2017
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Water Resources Program Staff: Eli Robinson, Educator
Updates:
Septic education workshops are being scheduled throughout the county. WSU Extension is looking at
addressing this need through a broader regional approach. Updates on the process will be given as
available.
Small Farms Program Staff: Vacant
Updates:
The small farms team is currently an unfunded position. WSU Extension is looking to address this gap
through a broad regionalization of the small farms program. We hope to leverage this capacity to
address our focus on linking low‐income residents to fresh local food purchase options through
vouchers, online sales and more.
Cooperating agencies: Washington State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Washington counties. Extension programs and employment are available to all without discrimination. Evidence of noncompliance may be reported through your local Extension office.