News Stories - Page 88

It’s not every day that a helicopter lands on Cloverleaf Circle at Rock Eagle 4-H Center, but for nearly 200 4-H youth and adults, it was a spectacular sight to see during Mission Make-It in late August. Youth attending the annual non-competitive engineering challenge offered by Georgia 4-H explored a Vietnam-era helicopter, getting up close and personal tours provided by members of the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation in Hampton, Georgia.

Millions of palm-sized Joro spiders have suspended themselves in three-dimensional golden webs on porches, power lines and mailboxes in roughly 25 counties in the state — and counting. Although their numbers are a nuisance, the spiders are not considered a particularly harmful invasive species.

Recruiting a diverse student body is a focus throughout the University of Georgia, but keeping students engaged and successful once they are on campus is a whole different mission, said Lakecia Pettway, director of the Office of Inclusive Excellence at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Leyland cypress are one of the most commonly planted landscape trees, but poor site selection and disease pressure may soon send them the way of red tips and Bradford pears.

National 4-H Council has announced that CJ Harris of Covington, Georgia, is a runner-up for the 2022 4-H Youth in Action Award for STEM. Harris is recognized nationally for his work to use 3D printing to effectively and cheaply produce prosthetic limbs for children.

For more than 20 years, the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) has encouraged students to explore an important, yet often overlooked, side of Georgia’s leading industry. Since its creation in 1997, the Congressional Agricultural Fellowship has offered 123 students a firsthand look into the world of agricultural policy by placing them in legislative offices located in our nation’s capital. Each summer, a handful of CAES students move to Delta Hall in Washington, D.C., to represent the college and serve as agricultural liaisons in Georgia’s congressional offices.

Excessive rain signals another a bad year for leaf spot diseases on landscape trees and shrubs. The leaf spotting that affects pear trees, including both edible pears and ornamental Bradford types, is caused by a fungal disease known as Entomosporium leaf spot. This disease also affects related shrubs such as Indian hawthorn and red tip photinia.

UGA’s interdisciplinary host team comprises the College of Veterinary Medicine, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Office of Global Engagement. The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, is designed to help developing countries in Africa improve their university agricultural education, research and extension programs by providing one semester of training at U.S. land-grant agricultural universities.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension’s radon testing program — a holistic program that combines radon education outreach with research, testing and mitigation — has helped optimize sampling and testing methodology for radon in water throughout the U.S. The program has influenced national standards in radon testing.