How does USDA assess “expertise” when hiring for these roles? What qualifications is it looking for?

Daniel: Thank you for your questions. I will present them to Dr. Kephart. Please provide other questions in the chat. Thank you

For the institute

I’m wondering if the Civilian Climate Corps will be accessible for those of us in Extension. Perhaps the “grass tops” can work with deans across the country to encourage provision of grants for the likely required match for housing these individuals… any information would be great!

yes

Will this recording be available afterwards?

Yes, the meeting will be recorded and I will email the link to everyone who has registered.

Why has the term regenerative agriculture not been used in Kevin's objectives? What is his opinion of that terminology?

Who will educate/train/prepare the climate corps

Thanks, Kevin. The Association of Climate Change Officers would be happy to help with and inform the development of the civilian climate corps. Several folks on today’s calls are Certified Climate Change Professionals (the professional credential known as the CC-P).

with downsizing university/state Extension is understaffed, underfunded, with little excess time to address issues raised is there a "track" available to help set up a foundation and a central repository of valid info for outreach

Will encouragement for habitat restoration targeting native pollinators come from the ag side or the food security side ? Speaks to interdisciplinary cooperation in general, too

what role do you see for urban extension agents and programs in these efforts?

Will the role of ag land for utility scale solar and wind farms be a part of this program? Land for grazing, pollinator species, cropping etc. Also. moving farmers to clean energy in production?

ACCO agrees emphatically about training trainers … and even more so that Extension is critical. We will have a train the trainer resource available in Spring 2022 and look forward to working with the Extension community.

Some of this initiatives seem to be focused in Farmers, ranchers, foresters (mostly owners) but in addition to them, there is a larger community of farm workers, farm managers and service providers that are dealing with Climate change day to day and suffer the consequences of climate change more severely. Most of the farm workers are disadvantage communities. are there programs that you are thinking and distinguishing these disadvantaged communities (Farm workers, farm managers, etc) ?

@Cynthia — existing pools of high quality information for some of these topics already exist. For example, on the climate literacy front, state climatologists (who may or may not be associated with Extension in your state), some existing Extension programs, federal agencies (NOAA in particular) and federal/university partnerships (Dept. of Interior CASCs, NOAA RISAs).

Although the Climate Corp. planning is in its infancy, are you foreseeing the Climate Corp. being a unique federal agency with full-time paid employees or are these temporary positions? How will Climate Corps mission differ from NRCS?

Where do you see the role of "working landscapes" - forest and rangelands in this directive?

Where so you see the richest opportunities for USDA to leverage the CES network of researchers and trusted relations at the local level to help accelerate progress on climate literacy, adaptation and implementation

I would suggest EDEN in additional to NECI!

Would be great to see that interactive/with NOAA’s Climate Resilience Toolkit if not already

https://extension.org/registry/

YES to EDEN also.

I invite everyone on this meeting to also register your program if it is not listed here yet!

Extension can also be a connector to tribal communities and under-served groups that we partner with. Their experience and knowledge can be invaluable to informing our strategies.

YES to Cat. We are talking about tribal communities at NIFA and they are included in some of the white paper "thought" pieces that we've been working on. Stay in touch if you wish, enorland@usda.gov.

will this chat also be saved and shared

Yes Cynthia

Jason, encourage not only sharing but also attending rescheduled NEEI/NSS conference at Penn St next May

2022 NEEI/NSS Info: https://www.nationalextensionsummits.com/

Stephanie - working forests and rangelands --- these lands and their owners/stewards are clearly part of the discussion. The Secretary is always talking about climate-smart forestry when talking about CS ag. These lands are not forgotten.

on phone and it is not showing that. thank you!

National Extension Climate Initiative (NECI): https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/NECI Searchable Map: https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/participants/“Extension Climate & Extreme Weather Programming: Successes, Challenges & Opportunities” Report: https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/resources/

Core curriculum for ag, timber and the entire processing/value-chain in Scope 3, GHG-P is high-need and focused

I have climbed to that M many times.

Adequate new funding tends to help free up time

NECI Monthly Meetings Info: https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/monthly-meetings/

Would be great to critically revisit a restructuring of traditional Extension areas across the country to better meet critical societal needs, as Wisconsin has done

Our next NECI Member Meeting is this Thursday Oct 7 at 3:30pm ET. Please join us! https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/monthly-meetings/

Summary of April 2021 Climate Action Forum at https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/events/

This report is on the NECI Resources page at “Extension Climate & Extreme Weather Programming: Successes, Challenges & Opportunities” Report: https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/resources/

Yale Climate Communications Six Americas research: https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/about/projects/global-warmings-six-americas/NECI Survey: https://montana.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3e2CYl2CPRO7qrs

Direct link to Action Items Summary Ros just shared: https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/extension-climate-change-action-items.pdf

Please also check out Yale Communications interactive opinion map to see how localities respond to different questions about climate change. While most people think climate change is happening, fewer think it's affecting them, and even fewer discuss it occasionally.

That's a keen observation Paul.

I think the exception to that is Sea Grant Extension Programs.

ACCO has done some national and statewide research on higher ed existing training/education capacity on climate change …

We are working to create a UW Madison-Division of Extension climate webpage that will be under our Dean's webpage and hope to have this rolled out by December to highlight our professional development, resources, etc.

@Cat, fantastic!

Paul, that was so articulate and heartfelt. And not finding any climate info on state Extension homepages is stunning.

Thank you Roslynn, but this is the work of UW Extension colleagues, from all Institutes, who have come together as a "grass-roots" team to move this forward.

Second your comments Eric.

Paul, I deeply admire and respect the way you tell it like it is and don't mince words.

Thank you for the story. Being part of SG, we've been luck. Our national office provided Climate programming funds in the early 2000s

https://advocacy.extension.org/

We’ve also had the goal of this in NC, where our climate office acts as the climate resource for a lot of Extension programming. Making that connection more obvious, and from Extension pages not just our SCO, is clearly a need to move higher on the priority list.

U Wisconsin-Madison will be hiring a statewide climate specialist in the Dean's office. this is taking a long time. We have developed a resilience menu for local govts we're about to launch and climate leadership TTT and other programs.

I would like to have this document.

@Kevin: This document is available at https://nationalextensionclimateinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/extension-climate-change-action-items.pdf.

Roslynn, great job. I haven't been involved since 2016 and you all have made great progress.

So Amanda - COME BACK!

I am here! :)

Amanda, welcome back! So great to see you re-engaged!

Assign me on the phone please

Amanda

I don’t see a join button?

climate smart ag please

how does one get to a room?

I don't see a join option either?

Climate Resilient communities please

Thanks everyone who joined me in the Ecosystem Services PIT!

Increase biodiversity through habitat restoration to support food systems

Can we try to organize a way to respond to the USDA RFI - either via e-communication and/or a quick meeting before Nov. 1

November 2 is preferable for me too

Thank you Jason and Megan!

We need to find the demand/supply issue first. Who is demanding solutioins to climate change? the bulk of demand is coming from a non ag poplutation as far as I can see. In CA we have a program that funds some significant opportunites for growers to adopt irrigation, cover crop mulching manure management programs and there is some reponse but it is still not a great response on the part of growers. The question is where is the demand coming from the roots? is this the top talking down still? How do we create the demand for change on the part of agriculture.

Amen Ben. When I’ve spoken to local government leaders in those communities whose crop production has been hammered, they aren’t asking for help. We’re going to have to catalyze this …

Ben, check on the climate change "demand" from tribal nations and other underserved audiences who are disproportionately affected. I think you will find it is very strong in most of these communities.