Part 1

Extension agents have to fill out a lot of reports. Many of them involve sorting through piles of data and evaluations, combing the logs of a busy year’s worth of work, making lists and checking them twice. It’s a somewhat tedious task, when Extension educators would rather be doing what they do best—teaching, researching and working with people in their community. Their annual reports all go into large database and are sent to the USDA in order to receive our annual Smith-Lever funds, which help keep the lights on in our county offices and bring Extension’s solutions for your life to you.

But the annual reports are also a chance for our Extension agents to shine, to share stories about the impacts they’ve made in communities throughout Florida. To get an idea of how Extension educators make small innovations add up to a big difference in our lives, I’d like to share some of these stories with you.

Turning urban communities on to biodiversity

Urbanization poses a significant threat to biodiversity, especially in Florida’s rapidly expanding metropolitan areas. Engaging communities in biodiversity conservation is crucial to mitigating these effects and ensuring resilient ecosystems.

Corey Callaghan is an assistant professor of Global Ecology at the Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center in Davie. In a unique approach to teaching people about biodiversity, he starts each class by taking out his phone. Using iNaturalist, a free app available on most cell phones, he guides participants in recording the nature they see around them. Each photo is uploaded to a database that is reviewed by naturalists worldwide, who help identify the plants, trees, insects, reptiles and other living organisms captured in the app. Corey’s participants learn to appreciate the diversity of life all around them and the need to preserve it. At the same time, they act as citizen scientists contributing data about biodiversity in urban areas, a focus of Corey’s research.

You can read more about Corey’s research here.

In 2024, his program engaged over 400 people who participated through workshops, webinars, and field trips; together they collected more than 10,000 biodiversity observations across Florida, directly contributing to community science databases. After taking Corey’s program, participants said they were more likely to adopt native landscaping practices, reduce their pesticide use, and support local conservation initiatives. The program also enhanced environmental outcomes, such as increased native plant diversity and pollinator activity in urban greenspaces.

See Corey’s guides to Magnificent Moths and Herping Adventures on Ask IFAS.

Baker County Extension agent helps residents harvest golden eggs

With the price of eggs rising, more people are interested in raising their own chickens. One Baker County extension agent’s backyard poultry education program not only helps people learn how to save on eggs, but it also has an impact on the local economy.

Alicia Halbritter is an agriculture and natural resources agent in Baker County. She has a program that teaches the basics of raising chickens for eggs—choosing hens, their health and nutrition, purchasing or building coops, whether to have a rooster or not, and even selling your surplus eggs. Of the 129 people who took her backyard poultry workshops in 2023-2024, many were inspired to start their own flocks. As the average hen will lay 200 eggs per year, even with a small flock of 5 hens, that adds up to 84 dozen eggs, worth $336 if purchased at the grocery store.

Of course, as Alicia will point out, there are costs involved in raising chickens, but many of those go back into the local economy. If all 129 of Alicia’s participants purchased chicks, coops, building materials, feed and other supplies locally, she estimates it would equate to $63,000 per year for the area’s economy.

Alicia is the co-author of Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs, available on Ask IFAS or at the IFAS Extension Bookstore.

The 5 Million Dollar Man: Pesticide training comes to the rescue of Panhandle farmers

Just like any vegetable gardener, a farmer has to deal with pests. The difference is that for farmers, the cost of pest management can be staggeringly high.

Most farmers need to pay a contractor in order to spray restricted-use pesticides on their farms if they don’t have a license to do so. At $8 per acre, applied three times each growing season, the cost can really add up. On average, a farmer in Jackson County, Florida can expect to spend more than $2,400 on pest control each season.

So Ethan Carter, a regional specialized Extension agent in Florida’s Panhandle, had an idea—why not train farmers to have their own licensed pesticide applicators?

As part of his job, Ethan trains pesticide applicators to earn their licenses through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. His trainings, which emphasize safe, economical and environmentally sustainable pesticide application, are offered free or at a much-reduced rate compared to industry equivalents. In 2024, Ethan trained 366 applicators to earn their licenses, which gets them increased salaries over non-licensed ag workers.

In addition, Ethan helped 77 new farm workers to earn licenses last year, boosting their paychecks and saving their employers from having to contract with outside companies.

Combined, Ethan’s pesticide applicator training program had an economic impact of over $5 million.

Ethan is regular contributor to Panhandle Agriculture and Ask IFAS.

Florida 4-H making sky-high strides in suburbia

In just three short years, a suburban school in Clay County went from having only three youth engaged in the Florida 4-H program to the entire 450 student body having access to participate in the nation’s largest youth development organization.

Orange Park is a suburban community south of Jacksonville that has traditionally had low youth involvement in 4-H. Part of the reason for this was the perception that 4-H is only for rural kids involved in agriculture and livestock programs, that it had nothing to offer kids in Orange Park. There was also a lack of 4-H clubs meeting in the Orange Park area. Many families aren’t willing to travel 30-40 minutes for a club meeting.

Elaine Simfukwe is a Clay County 4-H agent, who since 2021 has been working with the local 4-H Association to increase youth engagement and participation in Orange Park. The needle started to move after a 4-H member and St. Johns Country Day School student was on the winning team of the inaugural 4-H in Space program. Having seen the success of her science experiment launching into space, the school was very open to seeing what other STEM education programs Clay County 4-H could provide.
For 14 weeks in spring 2023, Elaine and her program assistant taught weekly STEM lessons to the 4th and 5th graders enrolled in the St. Johns Country Day School Academy program. The 48 students gained valuable life skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, and communication while developing their STEM knowledge and interest.

St. Johns Country Day School second graders learn about landforms in their 4-H Club.
In 2024, Taylor Thigpen, another St. Johns student and 4-H alum, was elected to be the Florida 4-H state president. Clearly this 4-H program was something special. After meeting with the science curriculum leads, it was decided that middle school would have a 4-H club that focused on healthy living, lower school students would participate in STEM 4-H programming during their weekly character education hour, and that the upper school’s Earth Club would utilize 4-H curriculum and Extension resources to plan out club activities.

At the start of the 2024-2025 school year, St. Johns Country Day School has one new 4-H club leader, 4 new members, and 173 lower school students participating in 4-H programming.

Extension’s involvement in delivering 4-H education to students at St. Johns Country Day School dispels the myth that 4-H is only for certain types of kids or that the only way to access 4-H is through a traditional community club model. With Extension supporting and working alongside the teachers at St. Johns, more youth have participated and benefitted from the resources that the Florida 4-H Youth Development Program and Extension can provide.

You can learn more about Elaine’s work with 4-H youth in her IFAS Blog.

0