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CTAHR Alumni & Friends

Issue 19   |   September 09, 2012   |   Archive

News & Events

Eat the Islands

Mealani Taste of the Hawaiian RangeIf you haven’t yet got your tickets for Mealani’s Taste of the Hawaiian Range, now’s your chance. Now in its 17th year, the delightful Taste extravaganza offers an ‘ono and satisfying array of locally produced food prepared by more than 30 of the state’s top chefs. You can sample different cuts of local, grass-fed beef, pork, lamb, mutton, goat, and wild boar, plus a bounty of fresh, island-grown fruit and veggies. It will take place Friday, Sept. 21, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island. Watch for ticket giveaways and event updates on Facebook at Taste of the Hawaiian Range and Twitter #TasteHI. For general event information, phone (808) 969-8228 or visit TasteoftheHawaiianRange.com.

A Bushel Basket of Information and a Chance to Applaud

Donna ChingThe Hawaii Agriculture Conference, which will take place at the Hawai‘i Convention Center on Sept. 20 and 21, is right around the corner. (Yes, for those with appetite, enthusiasm, and a plane ticket, it is possible to make it to both the Ag Conference and the Taste!) The conference offers a staggering array of ag information from farmers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and policymakers on such subjects as biotech, funding, food commons, labor relations, school gardens, and more. This year, CTAHR’s own Donna Ching (FCS) will be honored with the “Monty” Richards Leadership Award at the Conference’s All Hawaii Products Awards Luncheon on Thursday, Sept. 20. Those who have already registered or plan to register for the conference, or who plan to attend only the Thursday luncheon, are invited to join at a CTAHR table to cheer on Donna, who has played a major role in cultivating so many of Hawai‘i’s agricultural leaders for so many years. If you would like to be part of CTAHR’s table, please let Charly Kinoshita know at your earliest opportunity, at kinoshitac@ctahr.hawaii.edu or 956-6997.

The More We Get Together, the Happier We’ll Be

Graphic advertising Get-TogetherThe 2012 CTAHR Alumni Association and Friends Get-Together will take place on Sept. 28 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Magoon Research Facility, 2717 Woodlawn Drive, across from Manoa Marketplace. Street parking available—do not park at the shopping center, or you may be towed. Come for dinner, fellowship, and useful information: tour the Magoon Facility; learn about aquaponics, tropical ornamental plant breeding, and the Student Organic Farm Training (SOFT) Program; consult the Plant Doctor on your home garden; enjoy soothing live music; and compete in the Hawaiian-style bocce ball tournament! The cost is $25, with checks payable to CTAHRAA. Mail form and payment by Sept. 14 to CTHAR Alumni Association c/o UH-Manoa, 3050 Maile Way, Gilmore 210, Honolulu, HI 96822. Questions? Just ask Kourtney Inoue at 432-7777 or satokk@hawaii.edu.

Give Peace Day a Chance

Peace Day 2012 logoThe Pearl City Urban Garden Center (UGC) will be celebrating Peace Day Hawai‘i 2012 on Sunday, Sept. 23rd, with the theme of cultivating peace by introducing peace gardens at the Center in educational partnerships with schools and community. The UGC will be open to the public 1–5 p.m. to explore the gardens, while the formal inauguration ceremony will be 3–4 p.m., with the dedication of the Peace Gardens Pathways, program announcements, entertainment, food, and the launching of the first 3 peace gardens. Parking is available on the grounds. Seating is limited, so bring outdoor seating as well as sun protection as needed. For questions, please contact Jeannie Lum at jlum@hawaii.edu.

Grants & Awards

Environmental Care and Team Spirit

NREM Governors Award Team nomineesThe Natural Resources and Environmental Management Team has been selected to represent UH as its nominee for the 2012 Governor’s Award for Team Excellence Award of Merit (Team of the Year). The awards are “designed to honor employees and managers who exemplify the highest caliber of public service and dedication to serving the people of Hawaii,” says the call for nominations, and this award in particular is bestowed annually on a team that has made significant contributions to the state of Hawai‘i and has worked together to accomplish a common goal. Besides fulfilling the college’s land-grant mission, the department’s aims further several of the goals laid out in the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan: to help ensure that natural resources are used responsibly and respectfully; that the community is strong, healthy, and nurturing; and that the economy is diversified, locally sustaining, and globally competitive. The team was nominated by department chair Catherine Chan-Halbrendt. Some members were photographed at the August 2012 BOR meeting at Windward CC, where they were recognized. From left to right, they are Chi Ming Chan, Kirsten Oleson, Steven Nagano, Ali Fares, Debbie Wong, Catherine Chan-Halbrendt, and Creighton Litton. Also pictured to the right are President M.R.C. Greenwood, with BOR Chair Eric K. Martinson behind Dr. Greenwood, and Roxanne Adams, Employee of the Year. The 2012 Governor’s Award Ceremony will be held Friday, Sept. 28, 2:30–3:30 p.m. in the State Capitol Auditorium, where the team and other teams from the state will be recognized. Doors open to the public at 1:30 p.m.

Sharing the Knowledge

Gabriel Sachter SmithGabriel Sachter-Smith, a grad student in the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, is one of 14 students in ag sciences nationwide chosen by the Trellis Fund to partner with nonprofit organizations in the developing world. The students travel to developing countries and work with smallholder farmers to solve problems with growing fruits and vegetables; Gabe will work with Gardens for Health International on intercropping in banana fields in Rwanda. In the first round of Trellis projects, completed earlier this year, 10 graduate students supported projects throughout the developing world with a combined 124 training meetings, 1,935 farmer participants and 10 demonstration plots. For each project, organizations are provided $2,000 to support their work, and graduate students are awarded travel funds plus $300 to continue providing horticultural consultation remotely throughout the year. The fund is administered by the Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program at UC Davis with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Seeds of Sustainability

Orville Baldos, Joe DeFrank, and Scott LukasTPSS grad students Orville Baldos (left) and Scott Lukas (right) knew they had a good idea when they adapted the technique of hydromulching—spraying seeds mixed with water and paper slurry—to seed and stabilize areas previously assumed to be waste spaces, such as roadsides, with native Hawaiian plants. They were sure of it when their video Native Hawaiian Plants for Established Use: Seed Production and Establishment describing their technique and vision was awarded 2nd place in CTAHR’s first Entrepreneurial Competition. But if they needed more proof that theirs is an idea whose time has come, they got it when they entered the video in the Sustainable Agriculture Video Contest of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and it won that contest as well. It will be posted on Western SARE’s Web site, and the two may be featured in the organization’s newsletter Simply Sustainable. Here Orville and Scott are pictured with their mentor Joe DeFrank (middle) next to Scott's research plot of endangered native Hawaiian kakonakona grass, but they’re also researching pili grass, akiaki, and other native plants. Their project could lead to large-scale revegetation efforts and the development of a seed-production industry for native plants that would create local jobs and increased self-sufficiency.

Stem Cells in Space

Nora RobertsonThree MBBE students are featured in a news clip highlighting a contract awarded to a local biotech company. Tissue Genesis is being funded by NASA to refine the bioreactor they invented, which will allow scientists to do tissue culture experiments and test human stem cells in space. Nora Robertson (pictured), an intern for Tissue Genesis, graduated with a BS from the Biological Engineering program in Spring 2012 and will be joining the BE grad program this fall. Edward Drielak graduated from the BE undergrad program in 2011 and is also currently in the BE graduate program, while Angela Rodke is in the BE undergraduate program. The bioreactor will be delivered to the International Space Station in 2014 aboard the SpaceX Dragon.

Waimanalo No Ka Oi

UH-CTAHR Waimanalo Research StationCTAHR and the Castle Foundation have committed $75,000 for infrastructure improvements to enhance the capacity of Waimanalo Research Station as a center of excellence and learning for the Waimanalo community. Funded projects include installation of an aquaponic facility, the initial phase of which is completed; renovation of classroom space, which is underway; and reconstruction of an outdoor classroom in the certified organic plots. The primary goal of these projects is to improve the station’s ability to support Waimanalo community groups and institutions such as Pope School, Kailua High School, and God’s Country Waimanalo in their efforts to provide the Waimanalo community with educational programs focused on healthy food production and consumption. Public activities planned in the next few months include an open house and movie night as well as a catfish-spawning workshop and an aquaponics field day. Additional activities for the near future include educational activities for school and community groups and the establishment of a master gardener desk to handle home garden questions.

Spotlight on Our Community

Lifelong Love of Learning

Jo Ann Murata, Yukiko Murata, and James KramerCTAHR classes are good for the whole family! Several of Skip Bittenbender’s TPSS courses, for instance, have been enlivened by the presence of three self-proclaimed “life-long learners”: Yukiko Murata, 97; her daughter Jo-Ann Murata, 68; and Jo-Ann’s husband James Kramer, 76. They share their hopes for Skip’s Introduction to Tropical Fruits, in which they are presently enrolled, with an enviable zest: “We are looking forward to the Tropical Fruits classes to experience new taste sensations, to sharpen our palate and to go where few seniors have gone before without leaving Hawaii.” And though they’ve taken courses throughout the university under the Na Kupuna program, which allows seniors to attend UH free of tuition, courses on topics ranging from future studies to Hawaiian language and culture, they’ve concluded, “Courses offered by CTAHR fit most closely the elements of our collective Life-long Learning philosophies. The course on Ornamental plants helped Yukiko improve her orchid and anthurium collections and aided Jim in landscape design. Jo-Ann applied the tools and techniques from the Herbs and Spices course to add variety to her culinary garden. But all three agree that the course on Beverages [another one of Skip’s] expanded our understanding and appreciation of how the creation of fruit, nut and root beverages impacted the religious and everyday lives of the many cultures in Hawaii.” And undoubtedly, as they learn from CTAHR’s professors, they are sharing important life lessons with their teachers and fellow classmates as well.

Caretakers of the Forest

First class of Forest Stewards on Hawaii IslandCTAHR’s Forestry Extension program congratulates its first group of Forest Stewards, 15 landowners from Hawai‘i island. Participants successfully completed a 30-hour intensive training program held August 23–26 at Kilauea Military Camp, in Hawai‘i National Park at Volcano. Morning and evening sessions were taught by J.B. Friday (NREM), Extension forester, and local experts on topics such as Hawaiian culture and natural history, wildlife habitat, invasive species, forest management and protection, koa forestry, agroforestry, taxes, estate planning, and financial matters. Afternoon field trips to local managed private forests provided valuable experiences to balance the class sessions. The new graduates are committed to giving back to their local communities through activities such as hosting field days on their own property and other efforts to help landowners manage their forests.