News from the Center

The wide-ranging menu featured unlikely matches: strawberry jam, physics, horses and movies. It must be summer at 4-H. The UMass Extension 4-H Youth Development program was in full gear June 26-28 as they engaged 59 students from across the state in active hands-on learning on the campus at UMass Amherst.

Amherst, MA—June 20, 2016. Governor Charlie Baker declared June 20–26, 2016 as “Massachusetts Pollinator Week.” In support of this declaration, a celebration was held at UMass Amherst’s Agricultural Learning Center (ALC), 911 North Pleasant Street, to open the first state apiary. John Lebeaux, MDAR Commissioner; Daniel Sieger, Massachusetts Assistant Secretary for the Environment; and Kim Skyrm, State Apiary Inspector, examined full Langstroth bee frames. The purpose of the apiary is to serve as a vessel for education, outreach demonstrations and research related to agricultural sustainability, pollination, honey bee health and hive management. This apiary is also considered to be a critical component of the Stockbridge School’s student farm pollinator habitat conservation project.

Massachusetts Governor Charles Baker has declared the week of June 20th as MA Pollinator Week. Government officials will visit and learn more about the state apiary located at UMass Amherst Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the Agricultural Learning Center, 911 North Pleasant St. The declaration recognizes the impacts of pollinators on agriculture and encourages the public’s support of pollinators. The kick-off is on Monday June 20 at 10 am, and the event is open to the public.

The Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (CAFE) has kicked off its Undergraduate Summer Scholars Program. This new program provides summer employment internships for UMass Amherst undergraduate students in the labs and offices of University faculty and in communities where professional Extension educators are engaged with citizens. The program will provide substantive professional or academic training and also enhance the goals and objectives of research and extension initiatives associated with CAFE.