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Introduction
Last year during the annual meeting of DANR’s Waste Management Workgroup, Dr. Howard Ferris introduced the idea of a DANR PPAC (Program Planning Advisory Committees) project to develop a network for multi-disciplinary collaboration within the area of waste management. The Office of the Vice President of DANR has awarded us funding to proceed. This announcement is to invite advisors, specialists, and other faculty to attend a meeting in Davis to further develop the concept. The second day the regular business of the workgroup will be conducted. A more detailed agenda will be supplied in the near future. If you would like to present research or ideas at either the PPAC inspired day for planning multi-disciplinary collaboration, or if you would like to report on research or research activities at the regular annual workgroup meeting, please contact (David.Crohn@ucr.edu
Meeting Times and Location:
Day 1: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
June 15—Alumni Center, Founders Board Room, UC Davis
Planning meeting for building multidisciplinary relations to ease California’s waste management problems.
Day 2: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
June 16—Alumni Center, Founders Board Room, UC Davis
General Workgroup Meeting.
Please let us know what you have to present at the meeting!
Registration form:
Waste Management Integration Opportunity Meeting
Background on Planning Meeting:
California Assembly Bill (AB) 939 requires all counties to divert 50% of their wastes that historically have been landfilled to beneficial uses by the turn of the century. To meet this objective, municipalities have turned to developing yard trimmings into compost and mulch products for use in homes and agriculture. University research and Extension efforts in this area therefore serve multiple clientele groups simultaneously: (1) growers, (2) urban residents, (3) local government, (4) industry. No other entity has the expertise, experience, infrastructure, and authority that the University of California has for conducting research and education efforts relating to managing green wastes beneficially.
Waste management research also requires expertise in a wide range of areas including the agricultural and horticultural sciences, family science, economics, engineering, and policy. Both DANR in general and Cooperative Extension in particular are well positioned to provide expertise in these fields.
Sometimes planning documents become dated quickly as the environment that inspires their creation changes. Because developments in waste management regulations and technologies occur very rapidly, we will develop a fairly robust planning document. The tasks at hand as follows:
1. Identify the waste management needs of the state with respect to
- research
- Extension education
2. Identify resources within the University for meeting these needs:
- human (professors, specialists, advisors, students, staff);
- information (libraries, databases);
- and physical (facilities, equipment).
3. Develop a planning model to include:
- encouraging University partnerships with interested parties in government, industry, and the public;
- coordination of funding procedures;
- coordination of extension education programs;
- identification of personnel positions required to meet planning goals; and
- facilitating communication and cooperation between researchers.
4. Establishment of a board to oversee progress in implementation.
Anyone interested in multi-disciplinary cooperation and research is encouraged to attend. Again, funding is available to offset costs associated with travel, lodging, and food. The money available to each individual will depend on attendance levels and the distances involved.
If you have questions about the topic for the meeting, please contact me through email (preferred) at: David.Crohn@ucr.edu or telephone me at (909) 787-3333.
Hope to see you at the meeting!
Deadline for registration: June 1, 1998
Registration via mail or FAX (909) 787-5522:
Name:__________________________ Campus/County_________________
Mailing address:_______________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Phone:_____________________ E-mail:____________________
Dietary restrictions:___________
I plan to attend: Day 1 _____ (Planning meeting)
Day 2______ (WMWG meeting)
I would like a list of hotel accommodations:___________Map __________
(Davis map available at http://www.ucdavis.edu/campus-map/full.html.)
I would like to present results at WMWG meeting ____________________.
I request funding in order to attend. I anticipate needing $___________ to cover food, lodging, and travel expenses.
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FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE:
The following was copied from the January 1998 Program Priorities report submitted by the PPACs and reviewed and endorsed by CODAD (Council of Deans and Directors) as well as Vice President Gomes. The report first describes the DANR's highest programmatic priorities for (1) Agriculture, (2) Human Resources and (3) Natural Resources.
It then discusses three cross-disciplinary "Integration Opportunity Areas" the first of which is "Environmental Quality and Management." As you can see, the last opportunity listed in this area is waste management. Here is the text of the report:
INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITY AREAS—SUMMARY
The Division has identified broad areas representing what we consider overarching and comprehensive issues that could benefit from an integrated multidisciplinary approach. To achieve results, the Division must utilize its unique mix of agricultural, human, and natural resource scientists and educators to uncover to solutions that are more biologically, socially, economically, and politically sustainable than uncoordinated solutions. Three Integration Opportunity Areas- Environmental Quality and Management, Public Policy, and Human Health and Well-being-are described in the following pages with themes and potential issues. In addition, three other Integration Opportunity Areas should be considered as potential priorities for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach: Critical Public Thinking, Economic Viability, and Educational Technology/Behavioral Change. The challenge is to develop specific issues and approaches for addressing these broad Integration Opportunity Areas consistent with the Division's mission, relative strengths and comparative advantages.
To facilitate work on these integration issues, we need to support the formation of multidisciplinary teams through such mechanisms as the Division's competitive grants program. These teams should pursue and develop external funding sources for priority issues. The methods and structures to provide these "bridging" opportunities will need to be developed.
Also, the collaborative and long-term programming that results from the integration activity must be rewarded by the system. In similar fashion, we must acknowledge and accept the greater risk of failure with these innovative and integrative programs, projects and activities. Lastly, we need to support educational technology, personnel and activities that will assist with effecting behavioral change.
Integration Opportunity Area:
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND MANAGEMENT
The California environment and its natural resources have provided and continue to provide numerous benefits to the people of the state, from the raw materials for agricultural and industrial production to the elemental basics for human well-being and quality of life. However, those resources have been increasingly impacted by California's growing population, often resulting in air and water pollution and the degradation of soil and biological systems. Clearly, the protection, restoration and enhancement of California's natural resources and environmental quality is a high priority. Sound management of environmental quality must be fostered through an integrated matter areas are natural resource management themes, but the approaches to dealing with the challenges presented by those themes will depend on the Division's ability to organize teams across the interfacial arenas. A few individual, isolated Division programs such as the Spring-run Salmon Workgroup have already addressed environmental issues with the integrated framework. These will serve as models for successful future integration on other topics.
Opportunities for integrative Division research, outreach, education and leadership activities exist for several vertically organized natural resource management themes. Following is the list of potential issues:
• Biodiversity, both at the genetic and the species level, and the management of biological resources.
• Ecosystems and their management, including (but not restricted to) such diverse subjects as watersheds, marine systems, freshwater systems, plant communities prone to wildfire, and the dynamics of soil communities under agricultural management.
• Water quality, management and allocation.
• Air quality and management.
• Soil quality and management.
We have also identified the following list of potential opportunities for integration to occur in interfacial arenas:
• Interactions between the human community and the natural environment.
• The two- and three-way interactions between areas and activities dedicated to structures, agriculture and natural ecosystems.
• Human health concerns that are environmentally based.
• The perceived and real conflicts between economic development and the maintenance of environmental quality.
• Management of wastes, including emissions, in an environmentally responsible way.
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