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November-December, 2022
Volume 3, Issue 6
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Working to improve lives, communities, the environment, and economies throughout Pima County. | | |
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Pima 4-H is
Going New Places
4-H club programming at Pima County Cooperative Extension is expanding! We are happy to share that two new staff members, Hannah Rice and Daniel Gracia are now on our team! Hannah Rice is our new 4-H Ranch and Agriculture Instructional Specialist. She will be focusing on a program housed at Pima County’s Bar V Ranch and supported by Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation. The 4-H Ranch education program will allow 4-H club members to engage in ranch activities such as cattle round-ups, artificial insemination, and other on-the-range education events. The program emphasizes low-stress livestock husbandry and arid landscape management. Youths that are interested, but are not yet 4-H club members, can participate by joining a club before registration closes on December 15. Find a club and learn how to sign up on the Pima 4-H Website. Our other new hire, Outreach Coordinator Daniel Gracia, will be helping to build our Juntos 4-H Program, which will promote family involvement and focus on academic success, career exploration, and college readiness activities for youth participants. With sites in southwest Tucson and South Tucson, youths and families will be able to participate in family events, mentoring, field trips, and more. This is a national program, which is coming to Pima and Cochise Counties this year and will hopefully expand throughout the state in the future. Stay tuned for what these programs and others have to offer to our community!
Photo: One of the newest members of the Bar V Ranch family, this sweet day-old calf was born just before the 4-H Fall Round-up.
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Learning about
Pima County's Needs
Thank you to so many of you for participating in our Cooperative Extension Needs Assessment Survey. Over 3000 people responded across the state, with over 400 responding in Pima County alone. Over the coming months, the University will be working through your feedback and will incorporate your identified needs into an upcoming strategic planning effort for Cooperative Extension. I was very pleased to see that Pima County respondents were diverse and had a broad spectrum of knowledge and interests. They indicated personal or work engagement in a wide range of topics including education, social services, farming and ranching, natural resources, and the public sector. 59% ranked themselves as having some or a lot of knowledge about Cooperative Extension, while 41% reported that they had little to none. It is great that we were able to reach out to the community, beyond our direct stakeholders, to learn about our county’s needs from a cross-section of our citizens. We take this feedback seriously and will use it to help shape our work in the coming years.
Thank you for the many ways you support and connect with Pima County Cooperative Extension. Wishing you all a wonderful start to the holiday season!
Claire L. Zucker
Director, Pima County Cooperative Extension
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Smartscape Launches new Landscape Transformation Incentive Program
In Tucson, 70% of water consumption is outdoors, and many of the over 500 Homeowner’s Associations (HOAs) within the Tucson Water service area are starting to consider water conservation when planning or managing their common area landscapes. The PCCE Smartscape program has been discussing developing an incentive program to assist these HOAs for quite some time. As the call for water conservation continues to grow due to drought and cutbacks on the Colorado River, we realized that it was time to just do it! This was an opportunity for significant water savings. As a result, Tucson Water and Smartscape developed and piloted the Tucson HOA Landscape Transformation Incentive Program with two HOAs. One is a community of nearly 1,000 homes that were developed in the 1990s. The other is a small condo community of 17 units that was developed in the 1960s. Now in the second year of the pilot, the HOAs continue to be enthusiastically involved in the process and we are on the verge of formally rolling out the full program. HOA board members and property managers are spreading the word and we are excited that two additional large HOAs recently requested to be accepted into the program. As we broaden our scope, we will be continuing to refine the program by utilizing our newly developed navigation framework and tools. The goal is to have a smooth process that provides what the HOAs need in both an efficient and thorough manner from beginning to end, and beyond.
Photo: Key contributors to the Tucson Homeowner's Association Landscape Transformation Incentive pilot program, Candice Rupprecht, Tucson Water, the Sunflower Property Manager, HOA board member, and a community resident.
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Green Valley Garden Discovery Days
Strengthening the community of caregivers in Pima County is at the heart of what we do at the Family Engagement Program. Through weekly Garden Discovery Days classes at UA Cooperative Extension in Green Valley, Senior Instructor Cassie Burruel combines parent education tools with her skills as a Master Gardener - using the garden as a platform for improving relationships. Garden Discovery Days lets kids lead the way with activities such as fairy gardens, bee magnets, and grass families. Meanwhile, parents review concepts from the Partners in Parenting Education (PIPE) program such as how to engage, let go, encourage, and nurture their children. Garden Discovery Days creates a welcoming environment for families to explore communication while also being rewarded with the benefits of their hard work in the garden. “Parents tell me their children become more aware of the environment, want to garden, and become more independent,” said Cassie. The Family Engagement Program has been invited to launch a gardening program at the Arizona State Prison on Wilmot where we hope to share the values of Garden Discovery Days with incarcerated parents. To be added to the class waiting list in Green Valley, email Cassie at cassieb@arizona.edu. Learn about these and other parenting classes on the FEP Class Description webpage and then follow the links to sign up for classes when they are offered.
Photo: Garden Discovery Days student proudly displaying his craft.
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Here Comes the Season
of Giving Gifts
Gift-giving is a gesture that communicates our feelings toward someone or our appreciation, and it is definitely an opportunity to reflect on the receiver as well as yourself as the giver, right? What does the receiver like? What can I afford? What can I put together? Here is a creative, thoughtful, and budget-friendly idea we sometimes forget about. Show someone you care with mini-sized items that you know they will love… in a jar! Like a “pampering jar” with a jar full of mini-sized pampering items (i.e. foot soak, body lotion, socks, room spray) or a “snack jar” with a jar full of mini-sized healthy energy snacks like energy bars, assorted nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate. Or how about a “teatime jar” with a jar full of tea bags and mini-jar of honey, or this idea: a “gift card in a snow globe”, a jar filled with water, mini-ornaments, and glitter, plus their favorite gift card. Decorated jars or not, they will love the time and effort you put into selecting the mini-sized items they love plus they get to keep a jar that can be used over and over as a glass for water, a vase for a pretty flower, or to store leftover soup (Hey! That’s another idea, “soup in a jar” with dried beans, dried tomatoes, dried onion and spices, and don’t forget the instructions!)
Happy Holidays from PCCE Community Nutrition Program!
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Master Gardeners Bring Plants Into The World
On October 8th the Pima County Master Gardener propagation team opened their gates and welcomed over 500 people to their fall plant sale. Over 2000 plants were sold, finding new homes throughout Pima County. The team offered 285 different plant species that they had propagated from cuttings and seeds. There was a large selection of desert-adapted plants, lots of unique cacti and succulents, pollinator-friendly plants, and edible food plants. The master gardeners were also selling compost, garden art, soil probes, and our gardening handbook. Trained master gardeners were on hand to educate visitors on best gardening and planting practices, as well as to offer tours of the delightful PCCE demonstration gardens. One of the plants they were showcasing was the Moringa tree (Moringa oleifera). This fast-growing, drought-resistant tree of the family Moringaceae is amazing because every part of the plant is edible - leaves, pods, seeds, flowers, and even its roots. It is also very nutritious. The leaves have seven times more vitamin C than oranges and fifteen times more potassium than bananas. The plant also has calcium, protein, iron, amino acids, and it's also packed with antioxidants. If you’re interested in finding these and other gardening treasures be sure to stop by their April plant sale, or join a free Demonstration Garden tour on Wednesday or Saturday morning at 9:00 am, through December 2022 and then starting up again in February 2023.
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Thank You Parker!
A warm and hearty thank you to Parker Filer, our PCCE Horticultural Agent who has moved on from our organization to explore new horizons. Parker was a wonderful contributor to PCCE as well as to the community at large. In 2020, he worked tirelessly to pivot our master gardener program to virtual delivery, including implementing the extremely successful online Plant Clinic. Then over the past year, he oversaw our move back to in-person and all the while maintained a monthly contribution “Down the Garden Path” in the Desert Leaf and serving on the board of Community Gardens of Tucson. We will really miss him here and wish him the very best in his new endeavors. Thank you, Parker!
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Welcome to Our New PCCE Staff Members! | |
Celeste Gambill
Celeste Gambill has joined our team as the Master Gardener Program Coordinator. Since 2019, when Celeste became a Pima County Master Gardener, she has worked in the Edible Basin Garden, Propagation, and Plant Sale committee, and it has been a great transition to bring her on as staff. Celeste has a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and is excited to bring her experience in project management, adult learning, and leadership to the program. Beyond gardening, she enjoys educating, and working with the Master Gardeners. She is looking forward to working with the Master Gardeners and community partners in this new capacity. Welcome, Celeste!
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Carlyn Arteaga
The Garden Kitchen is excited to welcome Carlyn Arteaga to the program. Carlyn earned a B.A. in English Literature from Arizona State University with a minor in Spanish, after which they taught elementary school and then worked as a bicycle mechanics educator for ten years. They will be heading up our administration, social media, and website needs. Carlyn has a passion for community-building and education, making The Garden Kitchen a perfect fit!
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Veronique Villalba
The Garden Kitchen is also happy to welcome Veronique Villalba to the team. Veronique is a recent graduate from the University of Arizona with a B.A in Environmental Studies and Spanish. She will be working with our early childhood program to teach young learners and their families about nutrition, gardening, and physical activities. Veronique is looking forward to creating positive change in our community by helping ensure our current and future generations are healthy and that our environment in Tucson stays sustainable.
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Hannah Rice
Hannah Luz Rice and her working dogs (Odin, Grady & Kristi) joined PCCE in early October. She is developing the new 4-H Ranch Education and Rangeland Stewardship Program at the Pima County Bar V Ranch. Hannah comes to PCEE from Utah, Montana, and Wyoming where she has worked on ranches assisting with cattle, and goat herds, and packing horses into the Teton and Shoshone Wilderness. She is passionate about sustainable ranch systems, animal husbandry, and promoting the rights of people to access healthy and culturally appropriate foods that are produced in ecologically sound and sustainable methods. When she’s not ranching or taking soil samples Hannah loves to mountain bike, ride horses, and train her dogs!
Welcome, Hannah!
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Ben Tully
Ben Tully joined Pima County Cooperative Extension in September 2022 as the invasive species outreach educator. Born and raised in Seattle, Ben worked as a teacher in Hong Kong from 2011 to 2022, where he developed an interest in the natural world through hiking and various trips around Asia. In his position as invasive species outreach educator, Ben strives to be a valuable resource to the community in understanding the unique challenges we face against non-native plant life in the Sonora Desert, and how to best tackle these challenges. Here at PCCE, he will coordinate with Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation to reach out to the community with education about invasive removal and natural land stewardship. Welcome, Ben!
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UArizona Pima County Cooperative Extension
Programs and Upcoming Events
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Pima County Cooperative Extension
Website | 2021 Annual Report
Main Office: 4210 N Campbell Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719-1109
Green Valley Location: 530 E Whitehouse Canyon Rd
South Tucson, The Garden Kitchen: 2205 S 4th Avenue
Email: pcce@arizona.edu
Our Main Office on Campbell is open M-F 8:30 - 4:30
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