Author: Edwin Ritchey
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
We revised the 4-H Land Judging publication in 2021 to better align with the current NRCS and Cooperative Extension recommendations. Minor edits were made again to keep the information as current as possible per recommendations. These new practices also better align with National Land Judging contest so the state winners that go to the National Contest are more familiar with the National Contest rules. We also added a Home Site Evaluation to the State contest for the urban students that might no
Author: Lorilee Kunze
Bullitt County residents need resources for renewal, relaxation, health care and environmental stewardship. This program brought many partners, community organizations and businesses together on Earth Day to provide one place for county residents to access services and get to know the resources in their community. Our county Extension partnered with Circle of Harmony and Health, BlueOval SK, WestRock, Mayor's Office of Sustainability, Insuramax, Columbia Employee Store in Shepher
Author: Shane Bogle
It is estimated that 4,000,000 waste tires are generated annually in Kentucky, and many are stockpiled or illegally dumped across the state. In addition to littering the landscape of Kentucky’s diverse topography, waste tires present many environmental, health, and safety hazards. Rainfall accumulates and creates a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which are known to transmit West Nile Virus. Improperly stored tires also present a fire hazard. They trap oxygen that will constantly feed the f
Author: Lee Moser
The University of Kentucky Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Extension team launched the weekly online program From the Woods Today in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the program remains an important component of our forestry and natural resources Extension programming efforts (https://forestry.ca.uky.edu/woods-today). The From the Woods Today program features current information on woodlands and wildlife in Kentucky including presentations on woodland management, tree identific
UK Extension specialists partnered with Loretto Motherhouse Farm and the Washington County agriculture and natural resources agent to offer an in-person field day highlighting stewardship practices used on the farm. The Good Ideas Field Day was held at Motherhouse Farms in Nerinx, KY on April 6, 2024. Motherhouse farm manager, Cody Rakes, serves on the farmer advisory board for a multi-state project focused on farmer engagement in watershed protection and conservation efforts. He has been a stro
Author: Amanda Gumbert
Kentucky’s 90,000 miles of waterways drain into the Mississippi River, which provides two-thirds of the freshwater that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Excessive nutrients carried by the Mississippi River contribute to the hypoxic zone (or Dead Zone) in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in low oxygen levels that cannot support aquatic life. Since 2014 at least one University of Kentucky Extension specialist has participated in collaborations with colleagues at 11 other land-grant institutions i
Author: Beau Neal
Overgrazing of pastures and lack of weed control has been a continual problem on cattle farms both locally and regionally. The purpose of of educating producers on the benefits of rotational grazing is to remedy these issues. Farmers who were lacking in these efficiency practices were targeted during the cost share program timeline and throughout farm visits with producers. Weed control improved, grass stand improved, water preservation improved, and stocking rate increased. Tools us
Author: DJ Scully
The average American family uses 320 gallons of water per day, about 30 percent of which is devoted to outdoor uses. More than half of that outdoor water is used for watering lawns and gardens. Nationwide, landscape irrigation is estimated to account for nearly one-third of all residential water use, totaling nearly 9 billion gallons per day. - EPARain barrels capture water from a roof and hold it for later use such as on lawns, gardens, and indoor plants. According to the EPA, rain barrels can
Author: Matthew Futrell
Water quality has a deep impact on everyone it touches. In our day-to-day lives we don’t give much thought to the quality of our water because we are confident, we can go to the tap, open it up, and clean safe drinking water will come out. According to the World Health Organization, in 2022 nearly 2.2 billion people in the world were without safely managed water services.Even today many Kentuckians rely on groundwater as their primary source of drinking water. The Univers
Author: Nick Roy
This past year, the Adair County Cooperative Extension Service assisted12 local farmers in developing or updating their Kentucky Nutrient Management Plans (KNMP). This service provided to farmers aims to improve nutrient management practices on livestock farms, ensuring compliance with state regulations and promoting sustainable agriculture. The extension service provides education on nutrient management via workshops and one-on-one consultations, providing farmers with the necessary tools, know
Author: Reed Graham
For the past 23 years the Breathitt County Natural Resources Committee and Extension Office have partnered for an annual canoe trip down the north fork of the KY river. It's approximately a 10 mile trip from Douthitt Park to the Martha Layne Collins Bridge and there is a lot to see along the way. After the July 2022 flooding things were different along the way, and ANR agent Reed Graham along with Extension Water Quality Specialist Amanda Gumbert scheduled the trip to talk about those change
Author: Brad Lee
Rain barrels are a great way to get the public involved and raise awareness for water conservation and management around the home. We, my program and Dr. Annette Heisdorffer, Horticulture Agent at the Daviess County Cooperative Extension Office), have partnered with the Owensboro Regional Water Resource Agency for 9 years to deliver a rain barrel workshop for Owensboro residents and surrounding communities. After five consecutive annual workshops pre-pandemic, this workshop resumed o
Edge-of-field water quality monitoring stations have been developed to measure continuous nutrient and sediment runoff within row-crop agricultural fields across western Kentucky through a partnership of nine landowners, the Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, the USDA NRCS, Kentucky Geological Survey and the College of Agriculture Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky. We summarized an example soil erosion event and presented this to
Author: Taylor Graves
UK Extension specialists partnered with Loretto Motherhouse Farm and the Washington County agriculture and natural resources agent to offer an in-person field day highlighting stewardship practices used on the farm. The Good Ideas Field Day was held at Motherhouse Farms in Nerinx, KY on April 6, 2024. Motherhouse farm manager, Cody Rakes, serves on the farmer advisory board for a multi-state project focused on farmer engagement in watershed protection and conservation efforts. He has been a
The Northern Kentucky (NKY) Household Hazardous Waste Action Coalition is comprised of Boone, Campbell, and Kenton County Solid Waste Departments, Sanitation District NO. 1, the cities of Covington and Florence, and the U.K., Campbell County Cooperative Extension Service. The coalition receives grants annually from the Kentucky Division of Waste Management to conduct Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events. The Kentucky Community Assessment indicated that Campbell County residents desir
Author: Jennifer Palmer
The problem found within community gardens is soil erosion and poor soil quality due to over production of the crops. A secondary problem is allowing the soil to lay bare in the off season and this allows the soil to further erode and nutrients to be lost with each weather occurrence. The other concern is water quality issues in the garden and surrounding areas. An ongoing problem is weed control and this exacerbated during the off season when the ground is allowed to be farrow. The e
Author: Linda Hieneman
Kentucky has 90,000 stream miles and the number one pollutant in those steams is soil sediment. Sediment is soil lost due to erosion in heavy rainfall events, according to Amanda Gumbert Extension Water Quality Specialist with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food & Environment. Extension agents from Boyd, Carter, Elliott, and Greenup counties with the assistance of Dr. Jimmy Henning, UK Forage Specialist conducted a no-till drill clinic to educate farmers and
