"The ENLTT has provided a new emphasis and approach from Extension, communicating with all facets of the green industry, for the first time crossing traditional county lines and communicating in a coordinated way between county agents and state specialists in all relevant departments. This has opened up better communication and education on many issues, from IPM to worker protection standards, from business management to better communication between industries." - Bill Hendricks, Klyn Nursery, Inc., Painesville, Ohio
ENLTT is a group of 24 Ohio State University Extension state specialists, Extension agents, researchers, and teachers. They come from a number of departments, including horticulture and crop science; entomology; plant pathology; from Ohio State University's two-year Agricultural Technical Institute; and from all across the state. First, to better understand ENLTT, a short history lesson 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 the long-term prospect for continuing 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 Ohio State University in the Departments of Agronomy, Entomology, Horticulture, and Plant Pathology (Agronomy and Horticulture have since merged into the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science). There were numerous field faculty (Extension agents) of Ohio State University Extension throughout the state. There were faculty at Ohio State University's two-year Agricultural Technical Institute.
These people and resources were not organized, however, as a coordinated team in a recognizable way for the industry to work with them, or in terms of their own planning. The Ohio Nurseryman's Association (now Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association - ONLA) President Brian Decker (Decker Nurseries, Groveport, Ohio) was asked: "How would ONLA react if we in Extension got our act together, fostered specialization of agents to better serve the industry at a higher level of expertise , and better planned as an overall Team to provide a cohesive program for the industry?"
Brian Decker's answer then was, "If you do that, it will put the ball into our court." With that impetus, ENLTT was born. The Ohio State people did come together as a planning body, presenting coordinated yearly proposals to ONLA that it has funded generously the past four years, putting the ball back in Ohio State's court. As Brian Decker has since said, "This Team development and specialization is the best thing Extension has done for the industry in Ohio."
With the ball back in Ohio State University's court, in what concrete ways has ENLTT delivered? First of all, it is critical to stress that what ONLA and Ohio State University Extension have bought into, in a major way - starting with ENLTT there are now 18 Extension commodity teams in Ohio, from a Sustainable Agriculture Team to a Swine Team - and what other organizations are buying into (including the Ohio chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture) is not just a direct fee for services rendered.
They went after a bigger bang for the buck - the energy of synergy, the genius of a team that is better than its parts. By encouraging people to work and learn together, through funds for travel to team meetings, for better books and other resources for team members, for better computer capabilities for team members to improve ways of distributing information, funders of ENLTT bought into the future. They bought into team development and the benefits from all that accrues.
However, back to the ever-demanding present. Again, what has ENLTT done for the industry lately?
Without doubt, the development of the Buckeye Yard and Garden Line (BYGL) is the most far-reaching of ENLTT's efforts and the one that best illustrates the benefits of a team orientation such as ENLTT.
What is the BYGL and how do industry funds help make it work?
BYGL is a weekly (April-October) update of landscape plant, pest, disease, and cultural problems. It is developed from a weekly conference call of ENLTTers from throughout the state (ONLA funds help reimburse various offices for long-distance charges). A group of BYGL writers then decides which articles to craft from the conference call each week and to submit via electronic mail to a weekly sender. (ONLA funds helped pay for computers and modems for writers.) The sender and a proofreader, communicating by electronic mail, then produce a final BYGL within 48 hours of the weekly call.
From extensive surveys of BYGL users, the keys to its usefulness are the timeliness, the short length of BYGL items (one to two paragraphs), the fact that it helps with current problem diagnosis, and the interspicing with humor.
The BYGL is then sent to all county offices in Ohio (and some neighboring states) by electronic mail. It is sent to a list of hundreds of electronic mail addresses throughout the United States. It is sent by FAX subscription to green industry companies in Ohio that do not have electronic mail. Now, in 1995-96, BYGL is "networthy" with sites on Ohio State University's Horticulture in Virtual Perspective's Web-Garden server, on PenPages, and on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry Web home page.
On Webgarden, Buckeye Yard and Garden onLine not only is archived for reference to past editions but also is complemented by color slide images which accompany BYGL articles, with additional links to Ohio State University Extension factsheets. This is only the beginning, as are other innovations such as BYGLive! sessions, which are weekly arboretum diagnostic walks throughout the state that feed industry observations into each week's BYGLs.
How do people use BYGL? Here are a few comments from industry and other users:
"The BYGL is the best, most informative, timely publication I receive. It is
absolutely the only resource that is written in a manner everyone can understand,
and its length is about enough that everyone reads it. I send it to branch
facilitators who put it on the bulletin board. Specialists read it and relay it to
customers. It definitely helps to substantiate training materials."
- Bob Avenius,
TruGreen-Chemlawn,
Indiana and Ohio branches
"I have kept a collection of the last three years of info. I review the current
info and am well-prepared to answer questions from the public. The latest BYGL, a
cup of coffee, it doesn't get much better than this."
- Alan Siewert,
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Urban Forester
"A great tool to identify problems before they arise in our area. With the state
split into three areas, we can anticipate problems/solutions by watching what is
happening in the southern part of the state. Very helpful for our Garden Center.
Gives us time to train our people for these situations and update our own database
when treatments and conditions change."
- Peter Scarff,
Scarff's Nursery, Springfield, Ohio
Other short comments from BYGL users:
"We copied and gave a copy to each of our foremen to help them identify problems and field questions from clients and improve their knowledge."
"Has changed some of our tree maintenance practices."
"Best use of government money going."
"An example for starting a Wisconsin Urban Hort Update from our weekly teleconferences."
"BYGL is shared with the plant inspectors, entomologists, and plant pathologists at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture."
"We put it on the counter for all our customers to read."
"Information used to reinforce product recommendations to customers."
"It helped to confirm problems I saw, offered solutions that worked, and tipped me off to problems before they were apparent."
"Several clients commented that they needed the information on the very day that the BYGL arrived."
So, what is the message in all this? To be sure, OSU Extension would help the industry the best they could without financial support, and without ENLTT for that matter. However, with the Team and its industry partnerships, Extension is doing things it never could have done with everyone working in isolation. There is something else to remember about a good team; it is important not to sublimate team initiative and individual specializations and skills. Team members have a term, "teamjazz," that speaks to this dynamic equilibrium between the individual and the team. So, to close, here are two favorite ENLTT quotes, one from the jazz critic Stanley Crouch and one from the ENLTT mission and vision statement.
"The high degree of individuality together with the mutual respect and cooperation
required in a jazz ensemble carry with them philosophical implications that are so
exciting and far-reaching that one almost hesitates to contemplate them. It is as
if jazz were saying to us that not only is far greater individuality possible to
man than he has so far allowed himself, but that such individuality, far from being
a threat to a co-operative social structure, can actually enhance society."
- Stanley Crouch
Productive teams are like a good jazz ensemble; everyone has his/her own instrument to play, and creativity and virtuosity are strengths, but creative interplay heightens the effect. Then, the second synergy really kicks in through industry partnerships.
From the ENLTT vision and mission statements:
"The mission of the OSU 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. The vision of ENLTT is to serve as the University's partner with the green industry to position us for the future."
In Ohio, and throughout the United States, Extension and the green industry, working together, are quite a Team.
All educational programs conducted by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status.