News & Notes
Fall 2000 Newsletter
Jim Russell, an Iowa State University animal scientist who heads the Leopold Center's animal management issue team, received a merit award from the American Forage and Grassland Council in July during the group's annual meeting. The award acknowledges Russell's research on year-round rotational grazing, on-farm demonstrations and other activities as leader of the Center-funded initiative during the past eight years.
Research by Iowa State University entomologist John Obrycki and Laura Hansen Jesse again became part of a national discussion on the effects of genetically engineered corn pollen on the monarch butterfly. Results of their work were published in the Internet edition of the ecological journal Oecologia in late August. Obrycki is principal investigator for several Leopold Center grants, including a monarch/milkweed survey just completed and a two-year monarch project that began July 1.
The Iowa Environmental Leadership Institute (ELI) has received a one-year grant from the Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) program to investigate whether professional coaching is an effective tool to develop leadership capacity within grassroots environmental, natural resource and sustainable agriculture educators. ELI has developed a brochure and application procedure for interested applicants. For more information, contact Mary Carpenter at 515-277-5099, or send e-mail to . Applications will be accepted until October 4.
Leopold Center education coordinator Rich Pirog was part of a panel discussing local food systems for 300 people who attended the National Rural Development Leadership conference in Wyoming in August. He discussed the potential for rural communities to develop local markets with churches, hospitals, schools and nursing homes.
The Leopold Letter has been commended for its "From the Field" feature on Iowa farmers. Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE) presented a bronze (third-place) award in writing to newsletter editor Laura Miller during its international meeting in July. In the same competition, two Leopold Center projects managed by Center editor Mary Adams were commended for their design. Julie Mangels of Juls Design, Ankeny, received silver (second-place) awards for the 1998-99 Leopold Center Annual Report and a poster celebrating the 50th anniversary of A Sand County Almanac that the Center mailed to all Iowa libraries last fall.
One new and one revised impact sheet that summarize the work of the Leopold Center are now available in both electronic and printed form. The impact sheets-Animal Management Issue Team and Regional and local food systems-outline current and recently completed projects and provide contact information. To view the impact sheets or download a printable version, go to the Center's Web site, , and look under interdisciplinary research. Printed copies also may be requested by calling the Center at (515) 294-3711.
Kathleen Gannon, Mingo, has joined the Leopold Center Advisory Board as a representative of Iowa's independent colleges and universities.
Gannon is director of marketing and public affairs for the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. A native of New Hampton, Gannon also brings to the advisory board experiences on her family's grain farm. She holds a B.A. degree in English from the College of St. Catherine and is a member of the Human Resource Recruitment Consortium, the Jasper County Compensation Board and Colfax-Mingo Dollars for Scholars. She and her husband Bill have two sons and a daughter.
Gannon succeeds Lenore Durkee, who retired last year at Grinnell College and moved to the East Coast.
Adding fuel to the fire . . . More than two dozen public and private organizations, nearly 100 cooperating producers in the Prairie Lands Bio-Products growers association, and Alliant Energy have joined forces to develop switchgrass as a commercially viable source of renewable fuel. The sponsor, Chariton Valley RC&D, plans the first co-fire test later this fall. Look for details in the winter Leopold Letter, or visit the project web site.
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