News Release
March  28, 2008

UW Cooperative Extension Service forms new southwest, northwest areas

Western counties have combined to form two University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service (UW CES) areas, said the director of extension.

Fremont County has joined the former Big Horn Basin area counties of Hot Springs, Washakie, Big Horn and Park to create the Northwest Extension Area. Uinta and Sweetwater counties, which had comprised the Desert West Area, have joined Teton, Sublette and Lincoln counties to form the Southwest Extension Area.

“Our first consideration is to provide the best possible service to our extension clientele in the counties,” said Glen Whipple, associate dean and director of UW CES. “It is the consensus in extension this will provide the best possible service.”

Jim Gill, UW CES educator in Worland and in the Northwest Extension Area, said the combination makes sense in terms of working with producers.

“We share a common river basin with very similar crop and livestock enterprises,” he said. “Some folks are concerned about the additional travel, but I look at travel time as an opportunity to think outside the box as I head to a destination.”

The addition of like-minded co-workers in a work unit adds opportunity for synergistic thinking and diversity in knowledge and skills in developing programs, said Eric Peterson, UW CES educator in Pinedale and in the Southwest Extension Area.

“The expansion of the area provides better representation of initiative area expertise in some portions of the region,” he said.

Duane Williams, UW CES associate director, said he believes the new areas reinforce and enhance educator efforts to serve people in their region and state.

“Most were already seizing opportunities to work together to get the best information and resources to our clients,” he said. “This alignment eliminates underserved state initiatives in the old two-county areas and will, over time, foster increased specialization and strengthen the quality of the research-based information we connect people with.”

On the Web: http://ces.uwyo.edu/

http://ces.uwyo.edu/Areas.asp

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Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UWAG/news.asp

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