UC ANR Strategic Communications' Linda Forbes and Ricardo Vela made a video highlighting many of UCANR's 2020 accomplishments. The video is posted on YouTube at https://youtu.be/9puxX_HAC1s and the script is below. Wishing you an even more successful 2021!
2020 was a difficult and often devastating year, making our work to improve the lives of Californians all the more important. When the pandemic hit, we found innovative ways to carry out our mission.
Training people online across the spectrum of agricultural and environmental topics
Creating numerous virtual resources, from home gardening information to a new “Water and COVID-19” web page
Conducting virtual farm visits and field days
Providing critical safety information to underserved and non-English-speaking populations
Partnering with local organizations to address food insecurity
Training Californians in activities that support wellness
- Gardening
- Cooking
- Home food preservation and safety
- Physical activity and mindfulness
- Nutrition
- Organic farming
- Raising chickens
Offering private, educational and safe family tours at Elkus Ranch
Holding a COVID-safe California Naturalist intensive training for California Conservation Corps at Hopland REC
Engaging 4-H youth online – Facebook Live chick-hatching, a Disease Detectives program, virtual coding lessons, cooking demonstrations and much more
Providing more than 34,000 hours of virtual integrated pest management training
Creating an agritourism directory to connect Californians with their local farms
Providing EFNEP nutrition education curricula and other resources to teachers and community organizations
Donating 70,000 pounds of squash grown at Westside REC to the Central California Food Bank
Compiling resources for farmers, community gardeners and other people working in the food system
Helping small-scale Asian and Latino farmers complete English-language disaster aid applications
Providing critical resources and guidance on adjusting school meal service and other operations to reduce student hunger
Hosting a fun, educational virtual Pumpkin Project for students on Instagram
Throughout the year, we continued our work in wildfire prevention, disaster assistance and recovery, garnering national media attention
We provided prescribed burn training and outreach, and partnered with CAL FIRE to develop a new prescribed burn association in San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz.
We published guidance for city planners, fire districts and communities for reducing risk when building in fire-prone areas
We developed an app to identify hazardous trees for wildfire prevention
We delivered community workshops and training to help youth and adults reduce wildfire risk
We launched Match.Graze, a tool to connect landowners with livestock owners for vegetation management
In 2020 we pursued hundreds of critical research projects, following COVID-19 safety protocols
We studied climate change adaptation, hedgerow elderberries, strawberry fumigant alternatives, smoke and ash in food production, farmers market food safety and much more
Kearney REC stayed open to continue research on over 50 crops
We're studying mating disruption to control codling moth and navel orangeworm in walnuts, thanks to a $1 million award from CDFA
We became part of a $10 million grant from USDA focusing on adopting Kernza® to promote reduced tillage and increased carbon sequestration.
Despite the many challenges, there were more things to be proud of.
We helped increase the use of mating disruption in San Joaquin Valley almond acreage. David Haviland and Jhalendra Rijal received awards for this work from the CA Department of Pesticide Regulation and International IPM Symposium
We're leading efforts to develop an advanced wood products industry in California (Image: forest)
We launched the UC Organic Agriculture Institute, with support from Clif Bar, and chose Houston Wilson to lead it
265 participants in the 4-H Juntos program learned about educational access and success
We started the Soil Health Connection YouTube channel, a partnership between Colusa County Resource Conservation District and Sutter-Yuba Cooperative Extension
We turned our UC Master Gardener plant sale in Contra Costa County into a giveaway of 30,000 plants to benefit marginalized communities, shelters and schools
We celebrated Dr. Mary Blackburn's resolution from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for her 50 years of service to the community – over 30 of those with UC ANR
We trained CalFresh shoppers to take advantage of the Market Match program to double the value of their benefit at farmers markets
Our Climate Smart Agriculture Community Education Specialists helped growers apply for cost-share funds from CDFA's Climate Smart Agriculture programs
Our Nutrition Policy Institute partnered with CA Department of Public Health to help restaurants comply with Senate Bill No. 1192 – so that children get healthy beverages when dining out
We shared research on tree mortality and actions that can be taken to make the forest more resilient
We were grateful for the support of our donors and partners. Our Giving Tuesday campaign broke all previous campaign records!
We're excited about all the opportunities to make a difference in 2021.