The National Connections Team for Forest and Rangeland Resources, composed of Mark Thorne (Project Director), University of Hawaii-Manoa; Barbara Hutchinson (co-PD), University of Arizona; Kris Tiles (co-PD), University of Wisconsin; Retta Bruegger (co-PD) Colorado State University; Adam Downing (co-PD), Virginia Tech; Elise Gornish (co-PD), University of Arizona; Sheila Merrigan (co-PD), University of Arizona; Martha Monroe (co-PD), University of Florida; Leslie Roche (co-PD), University of California-Davis; and Dave Bogner (co-PD), University of Arizona, was the winner of the 2022 USDA-NIFA Partnership Award for Multistate Efforts.  The award was presented to the team on October 6, 2022, in a virtual USDA-NIFA award ceremony.

This interdisciplinary, multistate team developed a highly successful web-based conference series, Strengthening RREA programing Through Enhanced Connections (USDA-Renewable Resources Extension Act Conference Grant Award 2018-46401-28801), to increase capacity of Extension educators to serve their stakeholders and strengthen the RREA program (Figure 3).  The novel online, interactive content provided unique opportunities for Extension educators to share strategies, tools, and outreach methodologies across institutions, as well as proactively engaged a broad diversity of Extension, public agency, and conservation professionals at a time when the world had just entered the COVID-19 pandemic. The project aimed to strengthen RREA programming by building capacity among Extension and outreach professionals who provided scientific and technologically relevant programs to forest and range stakeholders.  Our specific objectives were: 1) establish a project team composed of range and forestry experts from geographically distinct land-grant institutions, 2) create nine webinars addressing RREA critical issues, and 3) develop online forums that enable participants to share ideas and methodologies and develop collaborations around the RREA critical issues.

The live webinars were recorded and posted on the project website to increase accessibility, and each webinar was paired with an online forum to allow for continued engagement and connectivity among presenters and participants.  The webinar series provided opportunities for Extension professionals to 1) strengthen and create new networks, 2) develop regional/national collaborations addressing RREA strategic issues, and 3) learn innovative approaches for stakeholder education.  The nine webinars in the series featured 26 Extension and outreach professionals across 14 land-grant institutions.

The webinars had widespread participation and international appeal. Across the nine webinars, there were a total of 1,069 registrations and 649 participants (58% attendance), as well as active discussion on the post-webinar forums. Cooperative Extension professionals made up 51% of the participants, while 41% worked in other fields including academia, public agencies, and private natural resource services from across the U.S. and around the globe (e.g., Australia, Spain, 

Guatemala, Brazil, Columbia, Slovakia, Canada, and Jordan). This suggests we met our goal of reaching and engaging Extension professionals. The range of non-Extension attendees was an unexpected outcome that suggests we had both national and international impact, by training professionals from around the globe on delivering scientific and technologically relevant programs to forest and range stakeholders.

The webinars were influential. Post webinar surveys (n=233) revealed that 54% of respondents gained information and planned to adopt what they learned, 23% learned something new, and 12% wanted to learn more. More than 96% of respondents indicated that what they learned would “somewhat” to “very likely” enhance their existing extension programing. Thus, we clearly met our near-term expected outcomes, and these results suggested that the project will meaningfully contribute to expected mid and long-term outcomes (Table 1).

Additionally, the webinars had Extension impact. Extension participants included county/regional agents (42%), state specialists (30%), administrators (6.3%), and staff (21%), spanning range (22%) and forestry (20%), agriculture (14%), environmental education (16.9%), wildlife (4.2%), recreation (<1%) and other (22%) disciplines.  Fifty-one percent of Extension participants reported receiving “great benefit” from the webinars, and an additional 47% indicated “some benefit”. The knowledge, skills, and connections gained by Extension participants will help them better serve stakeholders, thereby contributing to longer term outcomes (Table 1).

The project has both spurred ongoing efforts and catalyzed new national collaborations to promote additional professional development opportunities around innovative approaches for rangeland and forest Extension professionals, including two applications to the RREA-NFF 2022 program and a USDA-WSARE Professional Development proposal.  The webinar series can be accessed at: https://globalrangelands.org/rreasp/webinars. To learn more about the USDA-Renewable Resources Extension Act, visit: https://globalrangelands.org/rreasp/. 

Mark Thorne
State Range and Livestock Extension Specialist
University of Hawaii
Email: thornem@hawaii.edu