The Ohio State University Extension Nursery, Landscape, and Turf Team (ENLTT) is a group of 24 Ohio State University professionals (see Directory) from a number of Ohio State University departments and field Extension offices.
"The mission of the Extension Nursery, Landscape, and Turf Team, through our interdisciplinary and industry partnerships, is to improve the process of development, acquisition, delivery, and support of accurate, practical, and timely educational resources."
This shared mission is an important key to the development in the past several years of a new team approach for OSU Extension for the nursery, landscape, and turf industries in Ohio. First, some history is in order.
In 1992, seven key faculty members in the horticulture department of The Ohio State University retired, including Dr. Elton Smith, then the Nursery/Landscape Extension specialist in the department. With these retirements, and with continuing and projected budgetary constraints for public funds for horticultural and agricultural Extension in Ohio and the United States, the question was asked: What does Ohio State University Extension have to offer Ohio's nursery and landscape industries?
One answer was that, even with those key retirements, there were still numerous people and resources available within the University-- in the departments of agronomy, entomology, horticulture, and plant pathology [agronomy and horticulture have since merged into the horticulture and crop science department]. There were numerous field faculty of Ohio State University Extension throughout the state. There were people at the Agricultural Technical Institute. They were not organized, however, as a coordinated recognizable team for the industry to work best with them. Nor were they organized in terms of their own planning. From a realization of this, ENLTT was born.
Remember that the idea of ENLTT grew from discussions about a budgetary crisis in the University, in the level of generalized public support for Extension. Because of this, a fundamental aspect for the Team was working with the green industry for a measure of "user fees" from those most directly benefiting from what we do.
With this in mind, ENLTT made a proposal for funding support from the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association (ONLA), the major nursery/landscape green industry organization in Ohio. The following statement from the 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996 proposals to ONLA best illustrates the rationale behind this relationship:
"The overarching theme of this proposal and of the anticipated renaissance of the horticultural delivery system in Ohio is the concept of partnership: A partnership of field and departmental members, a partnership of all departments delivering horticultural information, and a partnership between the University, the industry, and the citizens of Ohio. Working together we can be quite a Team."
From 1993-1996 the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association has generously supported ENLTT with funds for specific ENLTT proposals, and the Ohio chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture has funded a proposal by ENLTT in 1995. These funds are used for many purposes, including development of slide sets, development of inservices and programs for Extension and the green industry, support for enhancing the Ohio State University Short Course, provision of up-to-date resources to horticulture Extension agents so they can better aid the industry, travel costs of Extension agents beyond traditional county areas, and much more.
Probably the most important use of support, however, is for communications and computer costs for production of the Buckeye Yard and Garden Line (BYGL). The BYGL is sent out to Extension offices in Ohio and numerous other states to provide timely (weekly) plant problem updates from April-October. It is also available to the green industry from Ohio State University FAX centers by FAX subscription. And it is accessed by many thousands more on the World Wide Web and Internet through servers such as the Ohio State University Horticulture in Virtual
Perspective and PenPages. Key BYGL items for each year are also summarized in this Ornamentals Circular.
The impact of BYGL is evident in these selected items from the 1995 BYGL Evaluation Survey:
ENLTT members are spread throughout the state of Ohio. See Directory on page 3 of this Circular.
The relationship of ENLTT with the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association and the overall green industry is a productive model of University/industry partnership in an age of ever-reduced general funding for universities. It provides a cost-effective way to help promote the building of a team of people who are better equipped to assist the industry through support by and for the representatives of the industry.