Last week in Cochise County, Evelyn Whitmer, Associate Agent, Family & Consumer Sciences, along with her fellow council members on the First Things First Board, students and dignitaries, received a check for $1,974,475 from the Prop. 203 cigarette tax money to be distributed throughout Cochise County. Each dollar spent on services for infants and young children is returned to them at a rate of up to $17 to one. This money will be used to help newborns to 5-year-olds.
On March 17, the Water Resources Research Center's 2009 Annual Conference was held at the UA Student Union Memorial Center. More than 250 people were in attendance. This year's meeting, on the topic "Best Practices for Stakeholder Engagement in Water Resources Planning," drew participants from across Arizona and more than 40 communities were represented. Presentations by Arizona Extension faculty included talks on local drought planning by Mike Crimmins and GIS and participatory planning processes by Kristine Uhlman. Sharon Megdal, WRRC Director, and one of the principal conference organizers, also presented. A poster session and interactive workshops provided everyone who attended an opportunity to share experiences and develop new ideas to improve and enhance participation in water planning processes. Kathy Jacobs facilitated a workshop on experiments and innovations in stakeholder engagement. CALS was represented in the poster session by Cado Daily, Sabrina Helm, and Adam Springer, a student in the School of Natural Resources. The support of Arizona NEMO (Kristine Uhlman) and the Master Watershed Stewards Program (Candice Rupprecht) facilitated participation of local watershed groups in the conference and poster session. The 2009 Conference was organized in collaboration with the Morris K. Udall Foundation and the Arizona Water Institute.
"Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice" (extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/ec/ec1614.pdf) is a guide developed by the Cooperative Extension National Network for Sustainable Living Education that provides the tools to take the first steps towards enriching your life and moving towards sustainable living. Before looking towards making changes in life ways, it challenges the reader to pause and consider what is most important when considering how we spend our time and energy. Then it moves on through a process to help the reader better understand where they are and how to get where they want to go ending with resources to help you continue your journey towards personal sustainability.
Bone Builders Volunteer Training, April 23-24, Maricopa County Cooperative Extension office, Phoenix. Preregistration is required. Applications and details are available at www.bonebuilders.org/ or at cals.arizona.edu/maricopa/fcs/bb/volunteers.html.
James A. Christenson, Ph.D.
(jimc@cals.arizona.edu)
Associate Dean and Director
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Forbes, Room 301
Tucson, Arizona 85721
520/621-7205
520/621-1314 FAX
TMN submittal: http://cals.arizona.edu/extension/tuesday/submittal_form.html