Natural Resources Outreach Coalition: Coordination and Program Delivery, Stone, A

The Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC) is a multi-organizational initiative providing technical and educational assistance to communities in New Hampshire’s coastal watersheds dealing with the effects of growth. The NROC program offered to communities includes an initial educational public presentation, Dealing with Growth, followed by a series of follow-up meetings to help the community focus their goals, develop an action-oriented work plan, and provide the technical and educational assistance needed to help the community meet its goals

NROC Coordination and Program Delivery

The primary goal of the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC) program is to provide education and outreach to communities in the NH Coastal Watersheds that are dealing with the effects of growth, and looking for ways to conserve open spaces and natural resources. Program objectives to meet this goal include: 1. NROC and client communities determine natural resource concerns of the communities. 2. NROC and client communities gather community information about these concerns 3. NROC develops and client communities host community presentations about natural resource-based planning. 4. Communities receive follow up technical and educational assistance as requested. In 2005, NROC worked with three new client communities (New Durham, Wakefield and Deerfield) to achieve the objectives outlined above. All three communities received NROC’s Dealing with Growth educational presentation, customized for each community, followed by a series of follow-up meetings in each community to address issues raised in the presentation and community concerns about growth and natural resources. At the same time, NROC continued to work with three previous NROC communities (Chester, Strafford and Candia). NROC worked with a total of six communities during the funding period. Our experiences with the NROC program led us to the following conclusions: a) All the program objectives were met b) The NROC approach of an initial education presentation for all boards and the public, followed by an intensive program of follow-up assistance over several months, continues to be a very effective strategy for mobilizing and motivating community leaders and volunteers to move forward and take action to protect priority land and water resources. The follow-up assistance and related activities are key to the success of the NROC program in a community. NROC’s revised follow-up assistance procedure, first implemented at the end of 2004, has been very successful, resulting in higher levels of volunteer recruitment and retention. This has also resulted in stronger and more focused follow-up programs developed by the participants c) Providing continued assistance to previous NROC communities has been valuable in helping those communities continue to move forward, and develop a strong and informed base of public support for natural resource-based planning. d) Having funds available for community projects has helped to motivate communities to take action on issues they have prioritized

NROC Coordination and Program Delivery

The primary goal of the Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC) program is to provide education and outreach to communities in the NH Coastal Watersheds that are dealing with the effects of growth, and looking for ways to conserve open spaces and natural resources. Program objectives to meet this goal include: 1. NROC and client communities determine natural resource concerns of the communities. 2. NROC and client communities gather community information about these concerns 3. NROC develops and client communities host community presentations about natural resource-based planning. 4. Communities receive follow up technical and educational assistance as requested. In 2006, NROC worked with two new client communities (Rollinsford and Fremont) to achieve the objectives outlined above. Both communities received NROC’s Dealing with Growtheducational presentation, customized for each community, followed by a series of follow-up meetings in each community to address issues raised in the presentation and community concerns about growth and natural resources. At the same time, NROC continued to work with four previous NROC communities (Wakefield, Deerfield, New Durham and Strafford). NROC worked with a total of six communities during the funding period

Candia Land Conservation and Well Survey Project

Candia’s concern over local development, its rapid growth and encroaching sprawl, and the resulting negative impacts on the natural environment led them to consider taking more serious steps towards environmental protection. This resulted in a two-pronged initiative: a land conservation program, and a survey to collect baseline data about their groundwater resources. With many of the lands overlying identified aquifers not permanently protected, conservation of these lands is critical for preserving the integrity of Candia’s current and future water supplies. The Candia Open Space Committee was a direct outgrowth of the NROC program. With NROC staff assistance, the group formulated its structure and goals, and established its relationship with the Candia Conservation Commission. During the NROC process, the group developed a public outreach strategy to build support for land protection, and to reach landowners interested in conserving their land. As part of their land conservation efforts, the Open Space Committee and Conservation Commission wrote a warrant article for the 2005 Town meeting for $200,000 to replenish their conservation fund. To build support for this initiative, the group developed a brochure describing the Open Space Committee and their goals, and four newsletters. The warrant article was passed successfully. The intent is that the Conservation Commission will come back to town meeting every year, report on its activities/spending, and request replenishment of the funds spent. To reach out to landowners, the Open Space Committee and other town boards hosted the Dollars and Sense of Saving Special Places presentation, and held three informal “coffee evening” workshops at private homes for interested landowners. The Candia-NROC group’s concern about drinking water resources (both quality and quantity) led to the development and implementation of a well survey to collect baseline data about Candia’s ground water resources. The survey, which was sent to 1500 households, yielded an 18% response

PRECISION DAIRY FARMING TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR DETECTING DAIRY COW DISEASE TO IMPROVE DAIRY COW WELL-BEING

Dairy cow health is multifactorial and complex. High producing dairy cows have been described as metabolic athletes, but metabolic and infectious diseases around calving affect many cows. These diseases have drastic negative effects on dairy cow well-being, milk production, and dairy farm economics. Early disease detection could potentially improve disease management, treatment, and future prevention techniques. The first objective of this research was to evaluate the use of activity, lying behavior, reticulorumen temperature, and rumination time determined by precision dairy farming technologies to detect transition cow diseases including hypocalcemia, ketosis, and metritis. The second objective was to evaluate the ability of activity, body weight, feeding behavior, lying behavior, milking order, milk yield and components, reticulorumen temperature, and rumination time determined by precision dairy farming technologies to predict clinical mastitis cases. The last objective of this research was to evaluate the precision dairy farming technologies used in Objective 3 to predict subclinical cases

The Effect of Head Size on Bone Conduction Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response in Canines

The Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) is the gold standard for testing the auditory system in many animals, including canines. The procedure involves measuring electrical responses that occur at various locations along the auditory pathway and brainstem. Electrical activity occurs as a result of auditory stimulation, presented either via air conduction or bone conduction, and can be measured via small subdermal electrodes. Since this method measures a physiological response to sound, a behavioral response from the animal is not required, resulting in an objective assessment of that animal’s auditory function. Previous studies have been conducted, namely Kemper et al. (2013), in which the effect of head size on the air-conducted BAER in dogs was examined. It was found that there was no significant difference on the response waveform between various head sizes. Munro, Paul, et al. (1997) conducted a study to establish normative data for bone conduction BAER waveforms in dogs. They reported a consistent observable difference in Wave latency between the two breeds tested, one small breed and one large breed. The purpose of the following study was to further investigate how head size affects the waveform of a bone conduction BAER in dogs, following the findings of Munro, Paul, et al. (1997) and Kemper et al. (2013). The following research questions were investigated: What effect does head size have on the absolute latency of Wave V for bone conduction BAER testing in canines? Does the average amplitude of Wave V of a bone-conducted brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) differs between the two test groups? It was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between head size and Wave V latency and that no significant difference would be found between the amplitude of Wave V of small dogs and of large dogs. Data were collected and analyzed from twenty dogs: ten small dogs and ten large dogs. Head size was calculated using two measurements taken using a caliper. An air conduction BAER screening was performed on each dog prior to testing to confirm normal auditory status. Bone conduction BAER waveforms were obtained and replicated for each subject. Absolute peak latencies and peak-to-trough amplitudes were analyzed for Wave V for each subject. There was an observable difference in Wave V latencies between the groups, but it was not found to be statistically significant when a Mann-Whitney U-test was performed. A positive correlation (r = 0.4929) was found between head size and Wave V latency. A difference between the average Wave V amplitudes for each group was observed. This difference was found to be statistically significant along with a negative correlation (r = -0.5789) between head size and Wave V amplitude. It was hypothesized that these findings relate to the differences in anatomical dimensions; a longer auditory pathway from the cochlea to the brainstem would therefore result in longer transmission times of the electrical signal, manifesting in longer peak latencies of Wave V. Similarly, smaller anatomical dimensions result in the recording electrodes to be closer in proximity to the source of the electrical potential in the brainstem. It was suspected that this is responsible for the differences seen in Wave V amplitude, as the voltage of the electrical potential decreased with increased distance between the source and recording electrode (Atcherson & Stoody, 2012). Future studies should be conducted with larger sample sizes to replicate and further validate these findings