July 6, 2005

Dear Friend of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources:

As we begin the new fiscal year, I want to update you on several developments in ANR that have occurred in the past six months. This is part of our continuing effort to keep you informed of our progress in strengthening our ability to develop and deliver effective research and extension programs to all Californians.

While the FY 2005-06 state budget has not yet been finalized, the May Revision continued to support the governor's compact with UC, which includes a modest increase in state funding in 2005-06 for student enrollment growth, increases in faculty and staff salaries, and the opening of UC Merced, among other things.

Program Planning and Development

I am pleased to announce that the ANR Executive Council has endorsed a fifth Strategic Direction for ANR, Sustainability of Agriculture and Natural Resources. This new Strategic Direction will help to direct our long term planning. Recognizing the importance of balancing environmental stewardship, economic development and community vitality, ANR research and extension programs have increased efforts to develop and deliver new knowledge to help support and sustain our agricultural and natural resources. Our programs will continue to cover the spectrum of agricultural production from traditional practices to transitional systems to organic

farming, all of which comprise the vibrant mix of industries that make up agriculture today. The Strategic Directions can be viewed on line at: http://ucanr.org/directions.shtml.

In addition to this new Strategic Direction, the Office of the Vice President, ANR, and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) at Davis are in the final stages of enacting a Memorandum of Understanding for a joint director of the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) and the CAES Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI). This joint appointment will help to strengthen the research-extension continuum among campus faculty, Cooperative Extension specialists, and local UCCE advisors working on sustainable issues. It will build on the strengths of each unit and provide greater coordination for our programs.

As part of our continuing "bottoms up" planning process, we will be seeking input from external stakeholders in the fall on the current and emerging high priority issues facing our stakeholders. The information will be used by our Divisionwide Program Planning Advisory Committees to identify priority issues that we should address. This will help us to ensure we are directing our resources and developing our programs to address those issues that are most critical in the state.

Maintaining the Local CE Presence

We are in the process of filling 11 county-based academic positions to fill some of the most critical needs in our county CE programs. These positions are funded by dollars freed up from recent retirements of Division academics. This reflects ANR's commitment to rebuild after the downsizing resulting from the budget cuts of recent years. The positions range from a  Strawberry/Vegetable Crops advisor on the Central Coast to an Air Quality advisor in the Central Valley to a Nutrition and Family Consumer Sciences advisor in the Bay Area.  The complete list of positions can be viewed on line in the March issue of ANR Report at:

http//danr.ucop.edu/anr-report/report05/rptpdf05/march-2005.pdf.

We plan to issue another call for advisor positions later in the fall. These positions will also be funded by retirements and resignations of current CE advisors and will allow us to deploy our resources to those areas of greatest programmatic need.

ANR Leadership

As I noted in my December 2004 letter, we continue to work on ways to make our administrative services more efficient and responsive to programs. I am happy to announce the appointment of Christine Casey as ANR's new Assistant Vice President-Administrative Services, effective July 1. While she has extensive experience in all areas of administrative services, she also brings a strong customer service orientation to this position and will provide leadership for budget, financial services, the controller's office, contracts and grants, staff personnel, and the ANR academic support units, Communication Services, ANR Analytical Laboratory, and Facilities Planning and Management Office. I know that Ms. Casey will be an asset to the Division's

leadership team.

In addition to Ms. Casey, we will be welcoming a new Program Leader for Agricultural Policy and Pest Management, Tim Paine, UC Riverside professor of entomology. Paine brings a wealth of experience in this area, most recently having also served as director of the UC Center for Invasive Species Research. Karen Varcoe has been reappointed as human resources program leader, continuing the effective leadership she has provided for the past five years.

University Relations

We have been fortunate in having President Dynes continue to be involved with ANR through direct "hands on" experiences. During the past six months, he has been on three tours of ANR research and extension programs in Los Angeles County, the Imperial Valley, and the Salinas Valley. He has seen the wide scope of ANR programs from nutrition programs for low income families to water quality research activities to programs helping communities develop more effective wildfire response plans and fire policies. On one of his recent tours, he stated, "The best example of technology transfer I have ever seen is here, Cooperative Extension."

We are looking forward to more exciting developments for ANR during the rest of 2005. We greatly appreciate your participation in our planning process and look forward to your continued involvement and support for ANR programs.

Sincerely

W. R. Gomes