WestNileVirus-L: Merrillâs Monday Morning Memo

From: Deena Haines <deh8_at_cornell.edu>
Date: May 14 2001

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Merrill’s Monday Morning Memo 
May 14, 2001 
 
Dear Colleagues, 
 
     Good morning!  I hope that the weekend
was a good change of pace for you.  The school year is winding down
(or up, depending on your point of view) at Cornell with student
(desperately) finishing their papers and taking their final exams. It
will get pretty quiet around here over the next few days.  The same
is undoubtedly true for the rest of you who live in college towns. 
On the CCE front, there are many signs that we are ramping things up for
a busy summer season of programs so a little peace and quiet before the
rush is probably a good thing.  Let’s look around at issues facing
our system: 
 
1.  A sad farewell -- We have learned that Ray Blanchard,
former colleague and friend to many in the Cornell Cooperative Extension
system (past and present), passed away on April 18, 2001 and was laid to
rest in a military cemetery in North Carolina.  Ray worked in
Extension administration as the fiscal officer from 1973 until his
retirement in 1983.   
 
2.  Small farms in New York State -- Here is a little quiz
for you: 
 
[a] How many farms do we have in NY State?  [i] 8,000, 
[ii] 16,000, [iii] 32,000, or [iv] 64,000. 
 
    [b] What percent are considered “small” using
USDA’s criterion for  “small?”    [i] 32%, 
[ii]  52%  [iii]  72% or [iv] 92%. 
 
    [c]  Small farms make up what percent of NY
State’s rural landscape?  [i] 10%, [ii] 30%, [iii} 50%, or [iv]
70%. 
 
    If you had trouble answering these questions, please
check the new CCE Small Farms web site for further details.  It is a
component of the Agriculture, Food and Communities site, which you can
access at:
http://www.cals.cornell.edu/agfoodcommunity/afc.<a href="http://www.cals.cornell.edu/agfoodcommunity/afc.cfm" eudora="autourl">cfm</a>. 
At this site you will find all kinds of information about projects and
organizations (within New York State, around the region, and across the
nation) that are working to promote sustainable food and agriculture
systems.  Take a look!  For more information about the CALS/CCE
Small Farms Task Force, its work, and/or becoming a member, contact
co-chairs Dave Smith at:
rds4@cornell.edu,
Monika Roth (CCE, Tompkins County) at:
mr55@cornell.edu,
or John Thurgood (CCE, Delaware County) at:
jmt20@cornell.edu. 
The fourth member of the task force leadership team is Jim Hayes, a
livestock farmer in Cobleskill, NY. 
 
3.  Transition in Jefferson County -- William H. Butler,
Executive Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County
has resigned effective May 7, 2001 to pursue other career opportunities.
Bill has served as Executive Director since June 1997. Under his
leadership, CCE of Jefferson County experienced significant growth in its
programs and the expansion of its resources. Bill was especially
successful in attracting new funding through grants and contracts. Bill's
hard work and genuine concern for the success of Cornell Cooperative
Extension is greatly appreciated; we wish him much success as he moves on
to other things.  Thanks, Bill, for your many contributions to
Cornell Cooperative Extension!  Catherine Moore will be acting as
Executive Director in CCE of Jefferson County until an Interim Executive
Director is named. 
 
4.  E-mail addresses -- If your e-mail messages are still
bouncing back to you with a note indicating that they are undeliverable,
it may be because you have not changed the recipient address to reflect
the new system.  At the end of 1999, we migrated our CCE e-mail
service over to CIT in order to be part of the Cornell system.  This
means that we no longer use the <cce> that had been part of our old
mailing addresses.  Let me use mine for an example.  My old
address was:
cedir@cce.cornell.edu. 
The new one is:
cedir@cornell.edu. 
Although we had made the changeover quite some time ago, our old server
was still able to pick up the old addresses.  With the change to a
new server, the old addresses went away so any messages that still
include the <cce> will be undeliverable.  Please check all
your “nicknames” and “groups” to make sure that your messages are
delivered in a timely way.  Thanks! 
 
5.  Back: the West Nile Virus -- The weather is warming up so
the West Nile Virus is once again back in the news.  Even before the
New Jersey Department of Health reported two WNV-positive crows last
week, several things were happening: (1) the news media were publicizing
timely educational messages regarding mosquito control, (2) communities
were developing plans for local prevention and response, and (3) the
media were reporting allocations of $5K-$80K to counties across NYS for
local WNV prevention, education and surveillance. While no one can
predict the magnitude of this year’s WNV outbreak, we do know that
by end of the 2000 mosquito season, WNV had permeated all of New York
State and spread into other states along the Eastern Seaboard, from New
Hampshire to North Carolina.  
 
     So what does this mean for CCE? 
Once again, we look to Lois Levitan (Environmental Risk Management
Program -- Center for the Environment) for leadership.  Many CCE
associations have become closely involved with local prevention and
control efforts, particularly to "spread the word" about
precautions and help reach higher risk sub-populations. CCE can also play
an important role in putting WNV risk into perspective. The NYS Health
Commissioner made several points in a recent press release:  (1)
only a very small percentage of people infected with WNV become seriously
ill (about 1 in 150), (2) children are not at significant risk, and (3)
human illness from WNV is unlikely before August-September even if WNV is
detected in bird populations.  However, she went on to suggest that
effective prevention programs are important.  And that is where we
come in. 
 
6.  West Nile Virus resources --  Lois Levitan has
helped identify a number of resources that are available to help gear CCE
educators up for an active educational role: 
 
     [a] Teleconference --The University of
North Carolina School of Public Health is sponsoring a national satellite
video broadcast on May 23 (from 2-3pm) entitled, "Preparing for West
Nile Virus: Will Your Community Be Next?" For information and
on-line registration check:
http://www.PublicHealthGrandRounds.unc.<a href="http://www.publichealthgrandrounds.unc.edu/" eudora="autourl">edu</a>. 
 
 
     [b] Cornell’s WNV web site --  See
Cornell's "What's going on with the West Nile Virus?" web page
at:
www.cfe.cornell.edu/risk/WNVmainpage.<a href="http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/risk/WNVmainpage.html" eudora="autourl">html</a>.  
This provides information and links to many other helpful educational
materials. 
 
     [c] List serve -- Cornell's
WESTNILEVIRUS-L listserv is an email discussion group for communication
and discussion about WNV, particularly regarding policy, risk reduction
and public education issues. Subscribe (or unsubscribe) by through an
e-mail request to Kathy Langendoerfer at:
kl38@cornell.edu. 
 
    So what precautions can CCE advocate? Los
suggests the following.  In the springtime, precautions primarily
involve "source reduction" (identifying and eliminating
mosquito breeding habitats). See Cornell's WNV web page for a list of
action steps (including a "Mosquito Hygiene" graphic showing
prevention and control measures for each stage in the mosquito life
cycle).  Mosquitoes have a short life cycle that runs through
several generations each year, continuing to breed in NYS through
September and possibly longer.  Thus "mosquito hygiene"
action steps should continue into the Fall.  If there is a WNV
outbreak, it is likely to be seen first in bird populations, perhaps as
early as June.  It is unlikely that an outbreak would spill over
into horse and human populations before mid-summer, if at all (last year
CDC confirmed the first human case on August 4).  In the event of an
outbreak, older adults and the immuno-compromised are the sub-populations
at higher risk. NYS DOH has taken children "off the worry
list," Lois indicates, so parents should not panic and camps and
schools should not alter their plans. Thanks, Lois, for staying on top of
this for us! 
 
7.  Congressional e-mail avalanche -- According to a recent
Knight Ridder Newspaper syndicated column by Peter Nicholas, e-mail has
become an epidemic in Congress.  Last year, members of the house
received more than 50 million e-mails; Senator Clinton receives 8,000 per
day!  A study found that of the 80+ million e-mail messages that
congress received last year, about half were ignored.  (The problem
comes in separating legitimate messages from spam.)  That being the
case, if you are contacting your elected officials by e-mail about this
or that, your messages may be less effective than you might hope. 
The old fashioned, snail-mail letter is much more likely to get the
attention of a real human being.  Personally, I will even send
hand-written cards (particularly when I'm thanking a Senator or
Congressperson for something -- such as taking a particular position on a
bill, introducing a piece of important legislation, etc.).  Several
people had recently mentioned to me that they were using e-mail to share
their thoughts with elected officials.  You may want to think about
using regular letters or visits to their district office instead; you’re
much more likely to get a hearing. 
 
8.  Speaking of E-mail  -- Over the past year, I've had
many fascinating discussions with people -- all over the world -- about
the impact of e-mail on their work and professional lives.  I‘m
seeing some themes in those conversations but I'd like to test them
against our own experience within CCE.  I'd love to hear from any
MMMM reader who is interested in responding.  Ground your comments
in your work at Cornell/Cooperative Extension: 
 
    [a] Critical incident -- Please share a
specific/concrete example of a “critical incident” (either positive or
negative) where using e-mail as a form of communication had a significant
effect on either the process or the outcome of the
activity. 
 
    [b] Why?  -- What was it about the use of
e-mail that made this incident significant? 
 
     Please send it to directly to me at:
cedir@cornell.edu. 
To help those who assist me in managing my e-mail, please put “e-mail
discussion” or something like that in the “subject” line so that it would
be easily recognizable.  Names and identifiable details will be held
in complete confidence.  I will, however, share with you what I
learn through this conversation.  This is not a “research project”
but something we may want to think about as we move ahead with higher
levels of connectivity.  I'll share my preliminary hypotheses with
you after the fact.   Hope to hear from you! 
 
9.  The week ahead  --  Later today, I'll be
traveling to NYC where I'll be seeing some of our extension programs
tomorrow. On Wednesday, I'll be visiting the association offices in
Orange, Delaware, and Broome Counties.   On Thursday, the newly
formed Council of Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations will be
meeting for the first time, in Ithaca.  (The March meeting scheduled
for Albany was snowed out.)  The idea for this council came from the
volunteers who serve on our association boards and committees; this grew
out of the conversations surrounding our Revitalization/Committed to
Excellence process.  Extension systems in other states
have found that these councils provide another vehicle for stakeholder
input at the state level while also becoming important advocates in the
political arena.  I'm looking forward to this inaugural
meeting.  Apart from these activities, we'll be having the usual
meetings about this and that!  Have a good week. 
 
Cheers! 
 
Merrill 
 
P.S.  According the criteria USDA uses, 92% of New York’s 32,000
farms are considered “small.” Fifty percent (50%) of New York’s 7.25
million acres are part of small farms.  Any of this surprise
you?  You can see that small farms are a significant factor in our
state.  For more details, check out the Small Farms web site. 
 
 
 
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Received on Mon May 14 12:57:20 2001