Monica Esquivel (HNFAS) recently spoke at the Hawaii Athletic Trainers’ Association High School student workshop on what Registered Dietitians (RD) do, the pathway to becoming an RD, opportunities at UH Manoa, and how diet and food interacts with the body.

Associate Dean Ania Wieczorek and her Gene-ius Day team recently completed their 6th year coordinating the Saturday Gene-iuses Program, an exciting science education series that offers classes once a month to engage a total of students in innovative hands-on science activities.

U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard’s senior legislative assistant, Dave Chun, visited the Poamoho Experiment Station to learn more about the research and Extension demonstration projects taking place there and was impressed by the work being conducted by CTAHR’s dedicated faculty and farm staff!

The O‘ahu Urban Garden Center will be promoting pollinator-protection awareness and strategies at its Second Saturday at the Garden event on June 9 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The program is coordinated by members of the Bee Hui at the UGC, who provide community education and outreach about bees’ and other pollinators’ essential services.

Scientist Melissa Price collaborated with artists and the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra to create six animated movements that educate youth about Hawai‘i’s endangered native bird species and the importance of conservation.

A Protected Culture Field Day will be held at the Waimanalo Research Station on Wednesday, May 30, from 10:00 a.m. to noon, where Extension agent Jari Sugano and associate professor Koon Hui Wang (PEPS) will discuss the benefits and disadvantages of screen and high-tunnel systems.

Emilie Kirk and Russell Messing represented CTAHR and the Kaua‘i Extension team, helping to provide information when hundreds of rural families and farmers showed up seeking answers and assistance at a flood-recovery community meeting on May 3 in Hanalei town.

Despite the earthquakes and volcanic activity, over 30 interested growers showed up at the Komohana Extension Office or participated online in the first-ever Giant Fruit & Vegetable Seminar, for contestants planning to enter the 2018 Hawaii 4-H Giant Fruit & Vegetable Contest.

In honor of Arbor Day, Andy Kaufman (TPSS) assisted a class of first- and second-graders to plant a hala tree on the UH campus; then, in honor of ‘Ohi‘a Lehua Day, he assisted a class of third- and fourth-graders to plant ‘ohi‘a trees on the Mid-Pacific campus.

Cooperative Extension proudly supported O‘ahu RC&D’s Parade of Farms, held at the Waimanalo Research Station on May 5. Faculty and staff from CTAHR helped to coordinate the event, and many CTAHR programs were in attendance to sustain O‘ahu RC&D and the Waimanalo community.

The O‘ahu Research and Conservation Development Council’s third annual Parade of Farms, hosted at the Waimanalo Research Station, will showcase farms and agriculture-related businesses in Waimanalo this Saturday, but recent storms have necessitated some changes in the tours.

Andrea Kawabata, associate Extension agent for coffee and orchard crops, was awarded a $750 scholarship from the Roy A. Goff Memorial Endowment Fund to support her participation in the recent Specialty Coffee Association Expo in Seattle. Andrea presented an educational poster illustrating how a specialty coffee region is able to deal with a significant pest (coffee berry borer) in order to continue to provide high-quality coffee to the consumer. Andrea also learned about current research; new technologies, equipment, processing methods; new varieties, and marketing strategies that she will be able to share with Hawai‘i coffee producers. The Roy A. Goff Endowment supports professional development for CTAHR Extension faculty and staff. It’s managed by representatives of Epsilon Sigma Phi Extension fraternity, Hawaii Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Hawaii Association of Extension 4-H Agents, and the Hawaii Association of County Agricultural Agents. Applications for the next scholarship will be due July 31—for information about the scholarship, email Julia at zee@hawaii.edu.

The 24th Tea 101 workshop, conducted by Randall Hamasaki and Stuart Nakamoto, was held at the Mealani Research Station on the Big Island. The seven-hour workshop was jam-packed with information and activity, including tea plant varieties, propagation, planting, shaping, pruning, irrigation, fertilization, pest management, and harvesting, as well as processing and marketing.

Cooperative Extension's Raymond Uchida, Jari Sugano, Jensen Uyeda, Joshua Silva, Kalani Matsumura, and Ted Radovich supported the O‘ahu City and County Disaster Recovery Centers to assist farmers, residents, and businesses affected by the recent severe weather and flooding, addressing questions on food safety, water quality, disaster-relief assistance, and debris removal.

Kyle Caires (HNFAS) was focused on kids and animals for the weekend when he recently hosted two events on Maui, a small ruminant workshop for over 50 4-H youth and adults in Kula and a beef fitting and showmanship workshop at a local ranch in Makawao.

Jensen Uyeda, Josh Silva, and Jari Sugano of O‘ahu County Cooperative Extension teamed up with Lisa Rhoden of the North Shore Economic Vitality Partnership to conduct a pesticide education workshop at Turtle Bay on April 25.

Cooperative Extension’s Alyssa Cho, Andrea Kawabata, Jen Burt, and Matt Miyahira (TPSS) organized the 2018 Coffee Berry Borer Conference in Kailua-Kona, where 115 farmers, researchers, Extension faculty and staff, and other agricultural professionals gathered to learn about and share their latest CBB research and on-farm management experiences.

Kyle Caires’ (HNFAS) project entitled “Characterization of Vaginal Tract Microbiota in Ewes Synchronized With Intravaginal Progesterone Implants,” a result of collaborative research in Hawai‘i with partners in Brazil, has just been accepted for the the XXIV Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Embryo Technology.

Extension forester and winner of CTAHR’s 2018 Award for Excellence in Extension J.B. Friday (NREM) is quoted in a UH News story announcing that the two species of fungus that are causing Rapid ‘Ohi‘a Death, or ROD, have been described and named in a recently published paper.

Twenty-four 4-H students in Kaua‘i County participated in a food animal quality assurance training which focused on how to be good stewards of livestock raised as market projects for the county fair, under the guidance of Kaua‘i’s Livestock Extension agent Savannah Katulski.