The good folks at Urban Garden Center, along with Oʻahu high school students, departed for their holiday breaks knowing that fresh produce would make it onto the plates of many Hawaiʻi families in need. 

It lasts just two hours and happens just once a year, but this is your chance to let members of the Hawaii State Senate and House of Representatives know what you’ve been up to, and how our legislators can help you help feed the state.

With partners from Maui, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Hilo and Kona, CTAHR’s Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death team hosted the statewide seventh annual ‘Ohia Love fests. This year’s theme was Ka ʻUpena O Ke Ola, a metaphor for how life is interconnected mauka to makai, like a fishing net, and ʻōhiʻa is a keystone species that holds it all together, explains Charlotte Godfrey-Romo.

“The recent disasters of COVID-19 and wildfires have caused forced disruptions in activity, limited information about the future, and economic instability,” says Nancy Ooki of Maui Extension. “The combination has placed the Maui community in a position of feeling a sense of loss of control, decision-making ability, and uncertainty of the future. 

The school bus doors swung open and in the blink of an eye, pastoral serenity was replaced by organized chaos as the army of chatting, laughing, and sometimes screaming 5^th graders marched toward the outdoor exhibit booths at the Oʻahu Urban Garden Center.

Back in the day, the Waialeʻe Livestock Research Station was a true community resource for Oahu’s North Shore. The sprawling facility, a stone’s throw from today’s surfing mecca, once provided invaluable services as the area’s primary abattoir and center for livestock feed and harvesting research. 

There’s a new Tribal Advisory Committee within the USDA, and retired Extension agent Glenn Teves has been appointed to serve by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. Schatz, chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, announced his appointment of Glenn last week. The new committee, authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill, will provide advice and guidance to the Secretary of Agriculture on Native equities in USDA programs and policies, and develop an annual report to Congress.

The last year has been an especially challenging one for Maui County, and even more so for Molokaʻi, due to Ag Tech and Secretary shortages, fiscal purchasing barriers, theft of equipment, difficult neighbors, the search and addition of two new faculty, an unsigned lease with DHHL, transitional leadership within CTAHR, and last but not least, the sudden UHMC commitment changes related to the Molokaʻi Farm, which led CTAHR to vacate the farm and consolidate our efforts at our office location. 

In response to the wildfire disasters in Lahaina and Kula, Maui 4-H quickly organized a statewide disaster response training – Hawai‘i’s first-ever event tailored specifically for teens. With 110 high school students from every Hawaiian island gathering at Baldwin H.S. in Wailuku, and a program based on the national Community Emergency Response Team administered by FEMA, it was a rare and valuable opportunity to both train for emergencies and discuss ways to contribute to the long-term disaster recovery process and future disaster planning.

With so many Hawaiʻi farmers facing challenges that can seem insurmountable, the timing couldnʻt have been better for CTAHR’s Seeds of Wellbeing initiative to host “Mālama the Farmer, Taking Care of Yourself and Each Other” last month.

Since 2013, CTAHR has been honored to be invited to Waimea Valley Botanical Garden’s Kalo and ʻAwa Festival on the North Shore of Oʻahu. This year, the Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences and Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences participated once again byproudly hosting an educational booth that focused on educating participants about kalo plant parts, varieties, and groups. 

CTAHR faculty and staff are excited to host their first Open House at the Oʻahu Urban Garden Center since the pandemic – and public interest is super high – so head over Pearl City this Saturday morning! UGC will combine the event with the popular “Second Saturday at the Garden” to provide a variety of educational exhibits and demonstrations for the general public. 

With our beloved island home beset by invasive pests of all shapes and sizes, what is the best way to pool our collective knowledge and resources so we can effectively combat these challenges? A two-day conference on invasive pests is a good start. 

A heartfelt mahalo from the CTAHR ‘ohana to Clay Trauernicht of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. As the Maui wildfires tragedy unfolded, Clay was interviewed by at least 50 different media outlets from across the country and internationally. With the highest level of scientific integrity, advocacy, and professionalism, he represented NREM, CTAHR, UH, and the state of Hawaiʻi to millions of people around the world.

U.S. Senator Maize Hirono received the red carpet treatment August 14 as she toured the Kauaʻi Agricultural Research Center along with Extention agents, specialists, and Jeremy Elliott-Engel, CTAHRʻs new Associate Dean & Director for Cooperative Extension.

The Genius Day Program holds its STEM program for Hawaiʻi public middle schools every summer. It all started in 2006 by Dr. Ania Wieczorek. For the month of June, middle school students participated in a week-long course filled with lots of educational and hands-on science related activities. The overall significance of this program is to educate middle school students on the field of science, and interest them in a STEM-related career.  The all-day program ran from June 5-30, Monday-Friday. 

After a four-year hiatus, the landscapers are back. Thatʻs right, the 2023 Green Industry Annual Conference is set for Sept. 14-15 at the Hawaii Convention Center. Hosted by the Landscape Industry Council of Hawaiʻi, the event will be jam-packed with learning opportunities, including can’t-miss presentations by CTAHR faculty. 

A throng of landscapers, farmers, and residents showed up for Sterile Landscape Tree Field Day at the Waimānalo Research Station, hosted by Ken Leonhardt and Alberto Ricordi of the Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences. Since then, CTAHR has fielded multiple requests for an encore performance.

Technology is impacting industries big and small, and agriculture is no exception. But it don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing. With many growers reporting they don’t own a computer or smart phone, while others report they have such devices but don’t know how to use them, Extension’s Amjad Ahmad organized an educational workshop for local growers on harnessing the latest technologies that impact ag. 

With more than 50 varieties of carrots out there, choosing the right one to grow successfully in Hawaiʻi can be a daunting task. The need for hands-on guidance – and the public’s interest for learning more – was apparent Aug. 5 as Extension’s Jensen Uyeda and Koon-Hui Wang of the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences held a Field Day at the Poamoho Experiment Station.