February
Keeper of Memories
2/8/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Barbara Kawakami,
a 1979 FDM alumna, was honored by the Hawaii Historical Society at their 125th Anniversary
celebration in October 2017. She was given the Kahu ‘Ikena (Caretaker of Knowledge)
Award for her dedication to the preservation and perpetuation of Hawaiian history
and her tireless efforts to gather, record, translate, and share precious Issei
memories with future generations. Barbara’s interest in immigrant clothing started
as a Fashion, Design and Merchandising college term paper by interviewing immigrant
Issei women about their clothing and lives. Her research culminated in her first
book, entitled Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii 1885–1941. This book was the
winner of the Association for Asian American Studies Outstanding Book Award in 1994
and winner of the Ka Palapala Po‘okela Award of Excellence for Reference Books in
1995. Barbara’s second book, Picture Bride Stories, was based upon interviews with
250 Issei women across Hawai‘i over a 40-year period. Barbara was honored for this
book by the American Library Association conference in Adult Non-Fiction. At 96
years of age, Barbara is a role model, and gratitude is due to her for her historical
contributions and preserving the stories of Issei immigrant women for future generations
around the world. Photo courtesy of Stephen Fong.
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January
Still Helping Students Learn
1/31/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  In celebration of PingSun Leung’s retirement from NREM, his family
is establishing an endowed scholarship in his honor, the PS Leung and Family
Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship will support undergraduate and graduate students in NREM who are focusing on aquaculture, fisheries, or local food, complementing PingSun's own research interests in developing quantitative economics models to assist and inform the management of aquaculture, fisheries, regional economies,and local food development.
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Kaua‘i Volunteers Offer Major Contributions
1/31/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  County Administrator
Russell Messing spoke at the Kauai Association of Family
and Community Education (KAFCE) Achievement Day luncheon on January 27th at the
Aqua Kauai Beach Resort. Russell updated the group on some recent and upcoming personnel
actions within CTAHR and got to learn about current KAFCE programs, such as the
Books for Newborns project, which promotes reading to young children, and a project
to make and deliver dresses to underprivileged girls in the Philippines. About
40 members contribute to the Kaua‘i program, among two clubs on the island. Part of the statewide (HAFCE) group, the KAFCE is a nonprofit
organization that focuses on family and offers workshops in health, home, community
and environment, international, leadership and youth education. HAFCE donated over
50,000 service hours to the community in 2016, a contribution valued at an impressive $1.3 million!
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100 Feet and 14 Inches
1/31/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Dan Rubinoff (PEPS) was consulted for a recent article in
the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and a follow-up in BuzzFeed
about Clayton Cambra, who discovered a centipede more than 14 inches long
outside his Honoka‘a home. Dan says it was probably a Vietnamese centipede, one of three types of centipede in the Islands, a
species that is venomous and has been known to kill humans. This centipede is
longer by far than the longest known centipede recorded in the Guinness Book of World
Records, a 10-inch-long Peruvian giant yellow-leg centipede. Brrrr—just remember to
wear your shoes when walking around outside!
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New Faces: Eli Isele
1/31/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Eli Isele will start work as the new assistant Extension agent
in Sustainable Agriculture in Hilo on Thursday, February 1. Eli earned his BS degree in general
agriculture from the University of Missouri and an MS degree in Sustainable Development
Practice from the University of Florida. He has extensive, practical working experience
with all types of agriculture, from a conventional macadamia nut operation on the
Big Island to two organic vegetable farms in Wisconsin. Eli also served in the U.S.
Peace Corps in Malawi, focusing partly on beekeeper outreach. He will be a
welcome and valued member of CTAHR!
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Residents From Afar
1/24/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  The Food Science MS program in
HNFAS has been awarded four non-resident tuition exemption (NRTE) awards for the
academic year 2018–2019. The NRTE awards, which are allocated in competition with
other graduate programs at UH Manoa, allow non-resident students to pay much lower
in-state tuition. They are effective for two years, saving each eligible student
about $28,000 in tuition. These awards will help the Food Science program recruit
high-quality graduate students from the Mainland and from other countries.
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A Flowering of Awards
1/24/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Brian Bushe was honored on Saturday, January 20, at the 70th
Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association (HFNA) and Hawaii Florist and Shippers
Association (HFSA) 70th Shinnenkai celebration. In addition to being a Special Honoree
of HFNA/HFSA, Brian received a certificate of appreciation from the state Senate,
presented by Sen. Lorraine Inouye and Sen. Jill Tokuda. He also received a certificate
of appreciation from the State House of Representatives presented by Rep. Sylvia
Luke, Rep. Richard Onishi, and Rep. Mark Nakashima (pictured). Last, but not least,
Brian was presented with a certificate of appreciation from Dean Nicholas Comerford,
Interim Associate Dean of Extension Kelvin Sewake, and Interim CTAHR Hawai‘i County
Administrator Susan Miyasaka! This was all well-deserved recognition for his years
of dedicated service to CTAHR and the agricultural community in Hawai‘i!
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New Faces: Savannah Katulski
1/24/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Savannah Katulski (HNFAS) joined the UH Cooperative Extension team in Kaua‘i County as a jr.
Extension agent on January 16. She will provide Extension program leadership focused on livestock and 4-H activities, assisting existing and potential
new livestock producers of beef cattle, small ruminants (sheep and goats), and swine
and helping ranchers with range and pasture production and management issues. She
will also advise and be responsible for 4-H/youth livestock programs, clubs, and
projects. Savannah has a BS from Michigan State
University, where she studied animal production, gaining experience with dairy and
beef cattle, sheep, and swine. At Kansas State University she earned an MS in
ruminant nutrition, focusing on minerals in growing cattle nutrition and interactions
between minerals and ruminal microorganisms. She is looking forward
to serving as a resource for Kaua‘i’s livestock producers, extending her nutritional
research, participating in the statewide Livestock Extension Group, and interacting
with the Garden Island’s youth and adult volunteers in the 4-H program. Savannah can be contacted
in the Lihu‘e Extension Office at 808-274-3472, or at katulski@hawaii.edu.
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Getting Them Fired Up
1/24/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Clay Trauernicht’s (NREM) Wildland Fire Extension Program
and the Pacific Fire Exchange recently organized a field trip on “Understanding
Wildfire in Hawai‘i” for local legislators. Five state representatives and senators
and five staffers came on the trip to Palehua in the Waianae Mountains to enhance their
understanding of Hawai‘i’s wildfire issues. They got to hear about the
challenges and opportunities of wildfire management from agencies
and programs working on wildfire risk reduction on O‘ahu and across the state,
including county fire departments; the State Division of Forestry and Wildlife;
Malama Learning Center; Waianae Mountains Watershed Partnership; and landowners
at Palehua, who have weathered multiple large fire incidents on their lands
over the past decade. The recent California blazes have brought national attention to
wildfires, but what many don’t know is that Hawai‘i is as affected by wildfires as the Western United States, in
terms of proportion of land area burned annually. Cost-efficient and effective
wildfire management requires much more than putting fires out. Prevention, risk
reduction, and post-fire response also form key aspects of reducing the
negative impacts of fire on Hawai‘i’s communities and natural resources, and
this is the important information that Clay and his partners are sharing.
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Webinar for All
1/24/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  The hardworking academic advisors, Martin Motooka, Maile
Sing, and Irene Morrow, offered the first live webinar on CTAHR majors and scholarships
for prospective students. It starts
out with eight minutes of presentation on all undergraduate majors, followed by
10 minutes of responding to live questions and commonly asked questions. They do
a great job of making CTAHR feel like an exciting and welcoming college with
something to offer almost everyone! Thanks are due to distance education
specialist Kellie Taguchi and academic support specialist Mandy Chen for making
it happen! More live webinars will be coming, so stay tuned!
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Beefing up Youth Skills on O‘ahu
1/24/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Kyle Caires (HNFAS), livestock Extension faculty on Maui, presented
a Beef Workshop and Cattle Evaluation Clinic for 4-H youth on Saturday, January
20. The students participated in discussions, hands-on activities with animals,
and a retail meats identification session. The program was focused on skill development,
with an emphasis on improving critical thinking and communication skills while teaching
these 4-H’ers more about the livestock industry. The clinic was hosted by the Clover
J’s 4-H Livestock Club and organized by Paul and Verna Eguires and several 4-H alumni;
the animals used in the demonstrations were provided by the Department of Human
Services – Hawai‘i Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF) herd, which is managed by
Darrell Bueno. In November, Kyles gave similar workshops on the Big Island, partnering
with Parker Ranch for cattle and Double D Ranch for swine. Future events are planned
for Maui, Moloka‘i, and Lana‘i in the coming months. These workshops are funded
by a grant from the Office of Economic Development in Maui County.
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To Root-Knot, or Not to Root-Knot
1/17/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Marc Meisner, Nick Yamauchi, and past station staff at the Kona Research Station have maintained
a Kona coffee root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne konaensis) research plot for
11 years! This pest occurs on approximately 85% of Kona coffee acreage and
is also found in Ka‘u. It can cause overall yield losses of about 60% and even tree
death. Data is currently being collected and analyzed to determine the long-term
effects of the parasitic nematodes on eight different coffee rootstocks, and the information is being disseminated to Hawai‘i’s coffee industry.
Last week at the Station,
farmers participated in a fun-filled morning, learning about coffee root-knot nematode
research conducted there. Roxana Myers of USDA ARS DKI PBARC and Alyssa
Cho, Stuart Nakamoto, Andrea Kawabata, and Jen Burt of CTAHR presented on the basics
of root-knot and other nematodes, grafting coffee trees, and the costs and benefits
of planting grafted coffee trees. Then participants
toured the nematode field and learned about the current research. They observed
first-hand the effects of root-knot nematode on coffee 11 years after inoculation,
the differences in rootstock varieties and grafted trees, and tree vigor and losses. They were also given a hands-on demonstration of proper nematode sampling
procedures. Project personnel want to thank their funding agencies, partners,
and the 20-plus faculty, staff, researchers, and volunteers who have helped over the years.
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3+2 Milestone
1/10/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Zhijun Zhan (HNFAS, 2nd
from the right) is the first graduate of CTAHR’s 3+2 master’s
program in Food Science, graduating this December after successfully defending
his thesis “Optimizing the Production of Bacteriocins by Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated
from Foods Using Improved Deferred Antagonism Assay.” Zhijun earned a bachelor’s
degree from Hunan Agricultural University (HAU) in China and a master’s degree from
UH Manoa in five years. Many individuals at HAU and
in CTAHR were instrumental in this significant milestone, including Yong Li (right),
graduate chair of the Food Science MS program; Zhijun’s thesis committee members
Soojin Jun (left) and Chin Nyean Lee (2nd from the left); Ching Yuan
Hu, Halina Zaleski, and other HNFAS faculty; and the CTAHR Academic and Student
Affairs Office, as well as Xiaoxin (Ivy) Mu, UHM Office of Graduate Education 3+2
Program Coordinator. HNFAS expects to graduate three Master’s students in its 3+2
Programs in 2018 and looks forward to growing its graduate programs through
collaboration with international partner institutions.
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A New Tree in the Forest
1/10/2018 Source: Office of Communication Services, CTAHR  Check out the great new website for Hawai‘i Forestry Extension! It
includes information on topics such as upcoming events, agroforestry,
pests and diseases,
and incentive programs.
It also has videos
and forestry publications
published by UH and by others. Photographs are linked
to Flickr galleries, including native Hawaiian plants,
koa,
and nurseries.
Mahalo
to CTAHR educational specialist Jody Smith for constructing the site!
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