Administrative

• Earth Day April 22nd
• WSU Insider Master Gardener featured on Earth Day (including our project!)
• Site Additions: Recommended Books; NCA5 links; 
• NEW Site Moving to State Foundation (demo in a bit)
• NEW, NEW Site Being developed on State Program
• Project Updates: AEC (Rick); EMG Education (Jim); Youth Gardening (Sandi); 
• Mike&AEC: TRY submitted, but looking for ‘tag-team’ from Eastern WA
• Speakers Central: TRY (The Resilient Yard) just waiting for ‘thumbs up’
• PoP (Protect our Pollinators- Karen) into ‘round two’, awaiting feedback
• EASE (Veggie Gardening with EASE-Laura) in ‘round one’… waiting…
• Other Presenters… anyone nearing a submission?
• Teresa Casson Photo Library project…
• Next Phase:  Getting 2-3 Climate Presenters per county

• Tim Kohlhauff (Spokane) sent information about the recently completed 5th National Climate Change Assessment, a wealth of information about where the US stands in regards to climate change. Scroll down to Research Information on this page to get linked into this set of reports.

• Teresa Casson (Pierce) WA State Legislature is working on a bill to limit the use of “small off-road engines” (read: gas powered Lawn care equipment). Here.
• WCCN Washington Climate Corps Network described. PDF
• John Strong (Yakima) discovered a Penn State Master Gardener Extension Hybrid Workshop titled “Spring Symposium: Climate Smart Gardening” February 24, 2024. Learn More
• Marilyn Denney (Pierce) discovered a series of classes put on by the Cascade Water Alliance (serving east King County) on removing your lawn. Classes NOW through the end of February.  Learn More
• Jennifer Marquis (Statewide Program Leader) sent in a new article from WSU on how to use climate data to inform human adaption to Climate Change. here.
• In the media:  Yale University has a SASSY “Super Short Survey” (6 questions) you answer to determine how concerned you are about climate change (if you like that sort of thing).  Key stat:  57% of Americans are either “Alarmed” or “Concerned” about climate change. You can take the survey here.
• And, if you’re looking for a reason to believe, here’s a Mashable article on “24 Good Things Already Happening in 2024”. Article covers more than climate change, but the top 9 are all climate related. Here.
• Anybody with more to share, send me an email or fill out the form here.

New Project Developments:
Cathi Lamoreaux (Spokane & State Foundation): AEC 2024 is themed “Gardening in a Changing Climate” Seeking volunteers to help shape the curriculum & corral presenters for this event.
Sandi Bauer (Pierce): Seeking a group of volunteers to join her in activating the “Children’s / Youth Climate Change Gardening” project.

Getting Connected:
Jennifer Marquis introduced us to Patricia Townsend’s WSU Climate Change Group.  Meets every other month, next one is tomorrow at 11:00… I will attend and report back.  If you are interested in attending future meetings, let me know.  I’ve got one more slot for our group. Patricia is also on NECI (National Extension Climate Initiative) and is going to connect me with a Florida MG… just so we can compare notes.

Administrative:
Need to form a Press Relations team.  If you like talking to the Press, let me know.  WSU CAHNRS Comms team will run ‘point’ on press contacts, but if they need back up on climate related topics, those willing to help: let me know.

11.29.’23 Mike sent out email call for “Starting Lineup” of Presentations for 2024
– Initial list of presentations & their ‘owners’ to be placed on the State Site at the beginning of the year.

11.30.’23 Met with Jennifer, Karen Lewis & Patricia Townsend to review the project
– Karen is Jennifer’s boss… strong two thumbs up
– Patricia Townsend is WSU Prof. & heads up the WSU Climate Group. Also thumbs up & will organize the people who will “Peer Review” our presentations.

11.11.’23 Climate Change CE at Pierce Foundation Meeting

• Tana Hasart (Pierce Foundation & State Foundation President) tapped yours truly to give a pitch on why climate change is important to other MGs.
• Tana led a follow on brainstorming session on how MGs can begin to incorporate Climate Change into everything that we do in Pierce County.

11.3.’23 TRY/Lawn adapted for Ballard presentation

• Joe Jennings (King) took just the lawn section of the TRY presentation, fronted it with selected data from the Introduction to Climate Change Science and ended it with some ‘shrink the lawn’ advice.  
• First example of modular approach to building new presentations to fit specific need.
• Joe… how did it go?  Lessons learned?

10.30.’23 Met with Jennifer Marquis:

• Thumbs up on the CC-SIG and wants us to move this site to the State Program website.  Mike Peronto will work with Debra Benbow to make this happen.
• No new powerpoint templates coming in 2024.  Suggested we use the Climate Change specific template (of which I was not aware) for our efforts.  That template is now available on this site.
• Discussed both the option of making the Speakers Bureau presentations available for all Counties to download and adapt… AND… the notion of running State-wide zoom presentations (& recordings) of our presentations.  Jennifer is fully supportive of both distribution plans.
• Jennifer is calling a meeting with Karen Lewis (her boss & CAHNRS Director) and Patricia Townsend (WSU Prof who heads Climate Group at WSU) to make them aware of our group and find ways of joining us together.

10.27.’23 Grant County Climate Change Speakers Request

• Grant County has been working with their local Conservation District since 2015.  April 20 & 21, 2024 they are jointly putting on a Symposium on Climate Change with an emphasis on Water Conservation.  Event is in Moses Lake.
• TRY (The Resilient Yard) was initially written for Western Washington.  We are trying (pun?) to adapt it to the Eastern part of the State.  Mary Bishop (Spokane), Mary McIvor (Okanagan) and Kris Moberg-Hendron (Spokane) have agreed to help edit TRY for E-WA.  If we like it, we’ll present at Moses Lake and have the template for both W-WA & E-WA
• Mary Bishop has volunteered to be a TRY presenter for E-WA

12.13.’23 Third Meeting: Three new initiatives kicked off: Children’s Climate Gardening group; AEC “Gardening in a Changing Climate”; potential for MG to MG Class on Climate Change
Zoom Link. Passcode: maL?iR2w

1.17.’24 Fourth meeting: Deep dive on the presentation Certification process and timelines.
Zoom Link. Passcode: F0N3?9Np

2.12.’24 Long view of where Speakers Bureau program is headed & more on what is now called the “WSU EMG APPROVED” process.
Zoom Link. Passcode: hUWGe.4D

March Meeting: 3.13.’24: Demo of the new website on the STATE Foundation site, moving from Pierce County.
Zoom Link Passcode: 9us*Q%#y