WHAT:

WHEN: Tues., May 28, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m

WHERE: Rutgers Gardens, 112 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ.

WHO: Several classrooms of kids, grades 3-5, from neighboring schools in New Brunswick and Highland Park, Rutgers Gardens staff and volunteers.

BACKGROUND: In February and March this year, Rutgers Gardens’ staff visited classrooms and conducted hands-on activities designed to connect the students to how food is grown and introduce them to unusual vegetables around the world.  The kids explored questions like, “How far does food travels before you eat it?” “How does our food grow?” and “Where were our foods first grown?” The classroom visits also included a planting activity, using a variety of seeds from common and unusual vegetables.

 About the Rutgers Gardens:
The Rutgers Gardens boasts one of the largest collections of American hollies in the U.S. A self sustaining operation, open 365 days a year, it’s one of the few botanical gardens in the country that does not charge an entrance fee. The Rutgers Gardens hosts a wide range of public activities to provide support for the care of over 180 acres of maintained and natural areas, and offers a diversity of educational programs. It serves multiple roles for Rutgers students and visitors alike, including providing an educational setting in which to promote and provide accurate information about public horticultures, the connection between plants, human health and nutrition, as well as For more information contact Deborah Henry, coordinator of Children’s Programs at the Rutgers Gardens, at 732-932-8451, or by email at dhenry@aesop.rutgers.edu.

L-R: Linda Cox, executive director of Bronx River Alliance; Frank Gallagher; Carolyn Fefferman, staffer with the Office of U.S. Senator Robert Menendez; and Judith Enck, administrator, EPA Region II.

In his over thirty years of working with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Frank Gallagher has explored the connection between people and landscape through both land management and academic research. He’s long protected the parks and forestry in New Jersey, with his shining accomplishment being the ecological planning for the 250-acre Natural Restoration of Liberty State Park. The park, which sits on a former chromium site, has been transformed into a vibrant wetlands natural area and is now one of New Jersey’s most visited parks.

For his “significant contributions to improving the environment and public health in the previous calendar year,” Gallagher was honored with a 2013 US EPA Environmental Quality Award, the highest recognition presented to the public by the agency.

Gallagher is an instructor in the Environmental Planning Program within the Department of Landscape Architecture, and has lectured at Rutgers since 1994. He teaches, guides research projects and mentors graduate students in the department in the areas of urban brownfield redevelopment and environmental policy.

He’s long been involved in efforts to sustain and preserve the environment, chairing the committee that created General Management Plans for fifteen of New Jersey State Parks. His most sustained focus though, has been on Liberty State Park, the “People’s Park,” as he calls it. There, he established research collaborations in urban ecologies with local universities, among them Upsala College, where for 10 years he taught courses in biology, evolution and environmental science. In addition to lecturing at Rutgers, he also serves as a research associate at Montclair State University.

“These collaborations have resulted in about a dozen scientific papers on the ecology of the novel plant and animal communities of this urban park,” he said.

Over the course of his long and illustrious career, Gallagher held the positions of Chief of Interpretive Services, Administrator for the office of the Director and Assistant Director of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, overseeing several ecological restoration initiatives in both estuarine and freshwater wetland environments.

Gallagher has published extensively in both scientific journals and venues of general interest on topics ranging from phytostabilization of contaminated soils to the ethics of ecosystem function monetization. He has presented hundreds of lectures at conferences and meetings both nationally and internationally on topics that include current natural resource-based environmental issues, demographic transition and brownfield redevelopment. In 2001, he was invited by Princess Abdulla of Jordan to lecture on forest development in Amman, Jordan.

He’s received many awards including the Audrey Zapp Environmental Achievement Award from the Friends of Liberty State Park, Running with Scissors from the NY/NJ Baykeeper and Excellence in Environmental Education from New Jersey Audubon.

EPA presents Environmental Quality Awards each year during Earth Week to individuals, businesses, government agencies, environmental and community-based organizations and members of the media in EPA Region 2, which covers New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and eight federally-recognized Indian Nations.

The Rutgers Master Gardeners will open their Butterfly House on Saturday morning from 10 a.m. – noon and will remain open to the public every Saturday and Sunday in June, July and August. The butterfly house is educational and fun for the entire family. This “hoop house” is filled with plants that feed and shelter butterflies and larvae native to New Jersey. The enclosed conditions allow visitors to take an up-close look at these showy insects and learn more about their host plants and how to attract them to the home garden. Children will be invited to capture more butterflies for the house using nets. There is no charge but donations are welcome.

Alon on June 1, from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., there will be a garden workshop on beneficial insects. In this lecture, attendees will learn which insects are helpful in the garden by preying on insects harmful to desirable plants. Participants will also learn how to attract “beneficials” to the garden  and reduce pesticide use in the landscape. The recognition and use of beneficial insects for pest control is one key concept in the practice of “Integrated Pest Management” or IPM. There is a $15 donation requested for registration to this workshop.

Master Gardeners are trained by Rutgers Cooperative Extension experts to provide advice on horticulture and environmental stewardship to residents of their home county. Aarious demonstration gardens, including a huge vegetable display garden and a 13 bed hard-scaped herb garden, are also found at the Middlesex County EARTH Center.

Even if you can’t visit the EARTH Center this season, Middlesex County residents can get great gardening tips by calling the Master Gardner Helpline at 732-398-5220. For residents in other counties, find Rutgers Cooperative Extension county Master Gardener information at http://www.njaes.rutgers.edu/county.

L-R: Adam Sprague, advisor; Gillian Schriever -West Creek; Michael Signorelli – Toms River; Emily Golembiski – Little Egg Harbor; Jillian Hubbard – Toms River; Megan Tumpey – Brick; David Werner, advisor

For the fourth year in a row, a team of high school students from the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Sciences (MATES) in Manahawkin, NJ, was the winner of the New Jersey Envirothon, held on May 4 at Girl Scout Camp Kettle Run in Medford, NJ. Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) is among the sponsors of the environmental competition.

The winning team, consisting of Emily Golembiski of Little Egg Harbor, Jillian Hubbard of Toms River, Gillian Schriever of West Creek, Michael Signorelli of Toms River and Megan Tumpey of Brick, will represent New Jersey in the 2013 North American Envirothon at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, in August.

The Ocean County students competed against 33 other teams on knowledge of natural resources-related topics, including soils, forestry, aquatics, wildlife ecology and a current environmental issue. This year’s theme was “Sustainable Rangeland Management: Achieving a Balance Between Traditional Agricultural Uses with Non-Agricultural Uses on Montana Rangelands.”

“For 20 years, New Jersey high school students have had the opportunity to participate in this valuable competition and learn more about the environment, natural resources and science,” said Secretary of Agriculture Douglas Fisher. “We hope they take advantage of the skills they learned and consider careers in agriculture and natural resources-related fields.”

Each of the MATES team members received $1,000 scholarships from the New Jersey Association of Conservation Districts, $2,000 scholarships from Richard Stockton State College and $1,000 scholarships from Applied and Health Sciences at Kean University.

Two 5-member teams of MATES students competed in last year’s Envirothon with all but one of those students graduating. The two MATES teams placed first and second in 2012. An almost entirely new set of 10 students made up this year’s two teams.

“I am very proud of the hard work and dedication put forth by our members,” said MATES advisor Adam Sprague. “It was quite an accomplishment considering it was the first year competing for nine out of the 10 team members. We now turn our attention to Montana which offers an exciting variety of challenges in terms of preparation for our students.”

The second-place team in this year’s Envirothon was West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North and third place was taken by High Tech High School, North Bergen.

In addition to RCE, Envirothon is sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, State Soil Conservation Committee; New Jersey Association of Conservation Districts; the 15 Soil Conservation Districts; United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service; New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

The 15 Soil Conservation Districts in New Jersey follow county boundaries and implement the New Jersey Soil and Sediment Control Act, which governs certain aspects of new development. These semi-autonomous bodies are locally governed and play a strong role in the protection of New Jersey’s natural resources.

Source: New Jersey Department of Agriculture

L-R, volunteers Anthony Capece, Elijah’s Promise coordinator; Geoffrey Slifer, head soils and plant technician, Rutgers Snyder Research Farm; John Milano, Elijah’s Promise; Win Cowgill; Yvette Molina, Elijah’s Promise, Keith Jones, New Brunswick Community Food Alliance; Shahnaz Hameed and Areebah Alam, Shiloh community gardeners; Lisanne Finston; and Paul Helms, New Brunswick Community Farmers Market.

A new community apple orchard at the Shiloh Community Garden in New Brunswick, NJ, practically sprouted overnight in late April. A group of volunteers from Elijah’s Promise, New Brunswick Community Food Alliance and local residents as well as staff and faculty from various departments at Rutgers, planted an orchard of 40 apple trees in one day and installed 90 feet of trellis to support the trees.

Spurred by a conversation between Mark Robson, dean of agricultural and urban programs at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Lisanne Finston, executive director of Elijah’s Promise, during a 2012 visit to Philadelphia community gardens, the idea became part vision, part challenge. Robson enlisted his colleague Win Cowgill, area fruit agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension to design and implement the orchard project.

Forty trees of three apple varieties await planting.

New Brunswick is home to Rutgers’ oldest and largest campus community. The city is filled with restaurants, theaters, large and small businesses, hospitals, a train station and the university. Despite its diversity and culture, New Brunswick is considered one of 134 “food deserts” in New Jersey. The Economic Research Service of the USDA defines food deserts as areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food, influenced by factors such as availability of grocery stores, income, vehicle availability and access to public transportation.

In New Brunswick, a number of organizations are partnering to create opportunities for residents, many of whom are low income or senior citizens, to have access to locally grown food. The creation of a New Brunswick community farmer’s market and several community gardens are initiatives that have been in place for several years, with involvement from many local organizations, including Rutgers University.

Shiloh Community Garden is located on Tabernacle Way, between Neilson Avenue and George Street in New Brunswick. Neighborhood residents, local youth groups, children and young adults comprise its membership. The garden was established as a passive community park and garden in May 2010 as a collaborative project among the City of New Brunswick, Elijah’s Promise, and the United Methodist Church of New Brunswick, which owns the land. The garden houses raised garden beds, a shed, compost bins and a source of water for the garden. The orchard is adjacent to the garden and will use its water source.

Mark Robson (left) attaches cross beam while Geoff Slifer and Win Cowgill hold it in place. Katherine Nosker (right), graduate student in Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, holds a level to assure the beam is straight.

The orchard project budget was $5,000, funded in part by donations of a Rutgers SEBS teaching award and a personal contribution from Robson, and matched by Rutgers alumna Kate Sweeney, senior vice president of Morgan Stanley. Additional support came from Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES).

While there are challenges to placing an orchard in an urban setting, this particular project was designed for manageability in a small space. According to Robson, apple trees from dwarfing rootstocks along with a tall spindle trellis system create the effect of a “Wall of Fruit.” The idea is to occupy minimal space, with full dwarf trees, so that the majority of the work and harvesting can be done from the ground or a small step ladder. This production system is very precocious, meaning the trees will start to bear fruit in the second and third season.

Cowgill selected three apple varieties, all chosen for the disease resistant characteristics and high fruit quality for this urban orchard. All three are resistant to apple scab, the most serious fungal disease, that can lead to complete defoliation and significant fruit loss on standard varieties. Cowgill explains, “the late Rutgers fruit breeder Professor L. F. Hough, discovered the gene for apple scab resistance when he was a doctoral student at University of Illinois. Identified in a crabapple tree, Malus floribunda, the gene, known as the V_f gene, is the basis for all scab resistance in these varieties.”

“The Rutgers NJAES tree fruit breeding program, headed by Dr. Joe Goffreda, is one of the few University breeding programs left in the US,” said Cowgill. Two of the varieties, Crimson Crisp and Pristine, were hybridized through a joint Purdue University, Rutgers and University of Illinois diseases resistant apple breeding program, known as PRI, utilizing traditional breeding methods. The third variety, also carrying the V_f gene, is Liberty, developed through Cornell University’s apple breeding program with the Rutgers V_f gene.

Areebah Alam digs a hole while Keith Jones readies the tree for planting.

Robson plans to continue to help the orchard establish roots by installing a drip irrigation system. Rutgers NJAES and faculty and staff will show Elijah’s Promise staff and Shiloh community gardeners how to maintain the orchard. A first year Byrne Seminar, which focuses on research and interests of faculty and introduces students to the range of intellectual and career possibilities offered at Rutgers, will also be developed around this activity.

According to Finston, the apples will be community fruit to be shared by gardeners and members of the community, as well as for use in the Elijah’s Promise soup kitchen and culinary school. The trees will bear their first fruit in fall of 2014.

L-R, Cape May County CyberExplorers 4-H Club members Nate Hoffman, Ben Johnson, David Heacock and Joe Johnson accept one of five awards they captured at the 2013 Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch Challenge on April 27.

For the second consecutive year, the Cape May County 4-H Youth Development Program fielded a rookie team to the Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch Challenge and walked away with top awards. The Cyber Explorers 4-H Club high school team, comprising David Heacock, Nate Hoffman and Ben and Joe Johnson captured the award for overall winner in the high school division. Avid Star Wars fans, the team of four constructed an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) they dubbed “The Depth Star,” to compete in the annual challenge held at Drexel University. “The force was with them,” joked Cape May County 4-H Agent, Julie Karavan.

The high school team also received second place for poster presentation, third place for pool performance and an honorable mention for their engineering design notebook. The team’s impressive performance marks the first time in the competition’s 8-year history that the award for overall champion and design process was awarded to the same team. “These kids own this honor,” said Karavan. “These boys stepped up, persevered and achieved.”

The Cyber Explorers fielded an expanded Middle School team including returning members Solomon Griffith and Luke Karavan. Griffith and Karavan were joined by new members Spencer Hoffman, Joshua Zozzarro, Josiah Zozzarro, Kaylee Todd, Johnathan Todd and the club’s young intern Caleb Todd. The Middle School team received a third place award for their engineering design notebook and an honorable mention for their poster presentation.

Cape May County 4-H Agent Julie Karavan founded the CyberExplorers 4-H Club in 2010. Now a member of the Rutgers faculty, Karavan hopes to develop additional marine science and technology programs in Cape May.

In partnership with Rutgers Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences and the University of Delaware, Cape May County 4-H is offering an Aquatic Robotics day camp for 6-8 grade students at the Nature Center of Cape May. The camp will be held August 5-9,  from  9 a.m. to 2 p.m.  daily. Registration is $300, with a $50 discount for registered 4-H members and members of NJ Audubon/Nature Center of Cape May. The camp will include engineering challenges and exploration of marine technology used to collect data.

For more information about Cape May County 4-H programs, call 609-465-5115, ext. 605, or email jkaravan@njaes.rutgers.edu.

Rachael Winfree

On May 8, several Rutgers faculty were recognized for their outstanding efforts. Rachael Winfree, associate professor in Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and an extension specialist in the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, was among those honored. Read more about the awards.

4-H Poultry Clinic

On May 4, the Cape May County 4-H Youth Development Program‘s Livestock Committee hosted a Poultry Clinic. Nearly 40 members of the community and 4-Hers from as far away as Ocean County attended the educational event, held in the Lockwood 4-H Youth Center in Cape May Court House, NJ. Pictured above, senior 4-H members Cody Hanek, Kate Sugar and Susanna Allay demonstrate the basics and finer points of poultry showmanship.

Guest speaker Peter Brown, a poultry expert from Maryland, spoke about disease and parasites in poultry, and taught participants how to perform vaccinations on their own birds. 4-H members will now be honing their poultry showmanship skills for competition at the Cape May County 4-H Fair, scheduled for July 18-20 at the 4-H Fairgrounds in Cape May Court House. To learn more, visit www.cmc4h.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHAT: A day-long conference, “Climate Change Preparedness in New Jersey: Leading Practices and Policy Priorities,” focusing on climate change preparedness and resilience in New Jersey. In addition, leading practices throughout the United States to enhance climate change adaptation capacity in New Jersey will be discussed. Hosted by the New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance.

WHEN: Wed., May 22, 8:30 a.m.­ to 4 p.m.

WHERE: Cook Campus Center, 59 Biel Road, New Brunswick, N.J.

WHO: First keynote, Dr. Beverly L. Wright, executive director, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and professor of Sociology, Dillard University will present reducing risks to vulnerable populations, drawing upon the needs of African American and minority residents of New Orleans after the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, as well as concerns of communities affected by the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The second keynote address, delivered by Vicki Arroyo, executive director, Georgetown Climate Center, will cover an overview of climate change adaptation activities at the state and federal level. The Honorable James J. Florio, former Governor of the State of New Jersey, will offer remarks during the conference.

Morning panels will feature nationally recognized experts who will discuss leading practices, innovations and trends for climate change preparedness and resilience for sectors of relevance to New Jersey, like agriculture, coastal communities, natural resources, public health, transportation, utilities and water resources.

Afternoon panelists will include in-state experts who will discuss climate adaptation practices underway in New Jersey. A complete agenda with panelists is available online.

BACKGROUND: Climate scientists predict that heat waves, heavy rains and droughts will become more frequent in the face of a changing climate and sea level rise will exacerbate the effects of coastal storms. In November 2011, Rutgers University hosted a statewide workshop to bring together public and private sector leaders to assess the most significant impacts of a changing climate for New Jersey and to begin preparedness planning. An outcome of the 2011 workshop was formation of the New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance (NJCAA), a network of policymakers, public and private sector practitioners, academics and business leaders designed to build climate change preparedness capacity in New Jersey. Facilitated by Rutgers University, the NJCAA focuses on stakeholder engagement, education and outreach, demonstration projects and working with the business community.

This conference builds on the 2011 workshop by moving from assessing climate impacts to adaptation actions and to further enhance information exchange, best practice development and public engagement. In addition to nationally renowned experts who will relate adaptation practices from outside of New Jersey that are applicable here, New Jersey panelists will address current actions in the Garden State related to preparing our residents, infrastructure and communities. The goal of the workshop is to highlight climate preparedness and resilience activities underway outside of, as well as within New Jersey, in order to inform and enhance climate change adaptation capacity within the state.

Contact Jeanne Herb, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, at 848- 932-2725 or by email at jherb@ejb.rutgers.edu or Marjorie B. Kaplan, Climate and Environmental Change Initiative at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, at 848-932-5739 or by email at kaplan@envsci.rutgers.edu.

This one hour webinar will cover pumpkins from planning, planting, growing tips, pest identification, pest control, and tips for harvest. Join agricultural agents Michelle Infante-Casella and Stephen Komar for this educational opportunity.

Log in from your home computer
Friday, May 24, 2013
1:00 – 2:00pm
Log on 20 minutes early to register
Program starts promptly at 1:00pm
Webinar link: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=783&password=M.E657A5B228C4797D666FA9FD04A72F

To Participate:
1) Click on link above.
2) Type your nickname in the box
3) Click ‘Log In’ button.
4) Follow on‐screen directions.

Presenter: Michelle Infante-Casella, Agricultural Agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County
Moderator: Stephen Komar, Agricultural Agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Sussex County

For more information contact Lisa Chiariello, Master Gardener Coordinator or Stephen Komar, Agricultural Agent at RCE of Sussex County at 973-948-3040.