The Neuse Education Team, 2004: Back row, from left: Greg Jennings, Bill Lord, Ada Wossink, Bill Hunt, Mitch Woodward. Front, from left: Former members Craven Hudson and David Hardy; current members Deanna Osmond and Charlie Humphrey. Not pictured: The late Mike Regans and editor/photographer Art Latham.
Art Latham photo
The Neuse Education Team and one of its members received awards in May for educational work in the Neuse River Basin from the N.C. Association of Cooperative Extension Specialists.
The team, formed in 1997, has coordinated water quality education programs for farmers, local governments, businesses, and homeowners to help them comply with state nitrogen reduction regulations for the Neuse River.
In recognition of its work, the team won NCACES’s annual Outstanding Subject Matter Program Developed by a Team award; NET member Dr. Bill Hunt won the annual Outstanding Specialist in Support of County Programs award. Team members donated the accompanying $150 cash prize to the American Cancer Society’s Relay-for-Life in honor of the late Mike Regans, charter team member and long-time Cooperative Extension agent based in Greene County.
Hunt, an Extension specialist and assistant professor in NC State University’s Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, expanded programs from the Neuse River Basin to address stormwater issues statewide.
NET’s multiple educational strategies are now applied in the Tar-Pamlico River Basin and throughout North Carolina and other states. Team members include Extension area agents Bill Lord, Franklin County; Mitch Woodward, Wake County; Charlie Humphrey, Craven County; and on-campus specialists Hunt, Deanna Osmond, Soil Sciences Department; Ada Wossink, Agricultural and Resource Economics Department and Greg Jennings, NET coordinator, Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department.
Also on the original 1997 team were campus specialists Steve Hodges of the Soil Sciences Department, now Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Department head; and Leon Danielson, retired Agricultural and Resource Economics Department professor. In the field were David Hardy, now soil testing section chief with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services; Craven Hudson, now natural resources agent for Gaston County; and Regans.
Jennings helped organize the team and secured funding for conferences, publications and demonstration projects. Osmond led in developing an agricultural accounting tool mandated by state government that allowed agriculturalists to track nutrient inputs and reductions. Wossink (with Osmond and Hunt) helped determine the cost and benefits of both urban and agricultural BMPs.
Area-specialized agents Lord, Woodward, Hardy, Craven, Regans and Humphrey developed vital local programs and established relationships with local agencies and private-sector cooperators critical for meeting educational objectives.
The team’s model interdisciplinary structure -- with both county-and university-level specialists and field faculty -- was part of reason for its success, Jennings said.
Educational programs consisted of demonstration sites, fact sheets, slide sets, computer tools, conferences, Web site (http://www.neuse.ncsu.edu), a newsletter and committee memberships.
For the stormwater program, the team coordinated basin-wide stormwater best management practice installations, using them to train local government personnel and developers and contractors in stormwater management.
Among other accomplishments, the team:
Hunt has worked with N.C. Cooperative Extension since 1997 to develop and implement a comprehensive educational program on urban stormwater issues. Need for this program grew due to new water quality regulations affecting more than 160 N.C. communities. He integrates his programs completely within the County-based Extension framework, including Extension agents in teaching programs tailored to the needs of many audiences, from homeowners to professional engineers.
A few of Hunt’s projects include:
