2000 Annual Report Page 11

Anita Neal
Cooperative Extension
Director

The St. Lucie County Cooperative Extension Office helps St. Lucie County in several major areas: Agribusiness, 4-H, Natural Resources and Energy Conservation, Family and Consumer Sciences, Marine Science, Horticulture and Commercial Citrus Production. There were many successful projects in 2000.

The Hurricane House has received over 1,250 visitors since it opened its doors last year. Programs on hurricane safety and energy efficiency are being conducted. St. Lucie County was the first in the state to open one of the four Houses donated by these Florida State Department of Insurance.

The Sustainable Agriculture and Best Management Practices demonstration site on 60 acres leased by St. Lucie County in the DuPuis Management Area located in Martin County is still under development. Additional grant funding was obtained to continue this project.

The grant funded Florida Yards and Neighborhoods program continues within St. Lucie county. This program focuses on pollution reduction within the community. The grant supports one Agent and a Program Assistant. A volunteer force of Master Gardeners and Florida Yard Advisors assist with the delivery of this message.

School Enrichment Programs continue to be offered in the elementary and secondary schools on topics such as wetlands preservation, insect identification, ocean life, livestock and farming awareness, plant propagation, nutrition, and seat belt safety. More than 300 county youth were involved in 4-H clubs. In addition to this, environmental camps were conducted involving more than 180 youth participants.

Extension Agents were also involved with the St. Lucie County Fair, providing an opportunity for 4-H youth to be judged on their accomplishments and displaying the design for a Florida Friendly Landscape.

Pesticide applicators can still depend on the assistance of the Cooperative Extension office in obtaining applicator certification and continued education credits in order to retain their pesticide licenses. Those involved with the Citrus Production Program participate in bilingual classes on tractor and equipment safety as well as Worker Protection Standards training. Citrus Best Management Practices publications were finalized and workshops to familiarize grove managers and others with this information are on-going.

The Cooperative Extension continues to use the vast resources of the information age. Besides the benefit of having our office computers networked, we have been able to provide a web site that links to the University of Florida and other educational sites and we are able to offer trainings on-line, in a virtual classroom setting. Some of our Agent's newsletters are available electronically.

Records kept throughout the year indicate that agents received 18,836 telephone requests, visited 2,386 clients, had more than 1,652 customers visit the Extension office, and made contact with more than 658,300 meeting, program and seminar participants. Extension distributed more than 42,070 informational publications and mailed out over 10,700 items of correspondence.

The St. Lucie County Fair booth for the Cooperative Extension Office. The master Gardeners and 4-Hers also had exhibits.