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Ron, you have a long history of public service in King County; you’ve worked hard for youth and youth programs. Now that you’re in the position you are and have a broader view of all the issues of the county, what are some of the challenges that a large urban county like King County faces?
We in King County are finding that we have a lot of issues common to our youth population whether urban or rural. Kids want something to do; parents want structured activity that is supervised, one that encourages young people to develop new skills, and to build upon those skills so they will ultimately succeed in a community college, technical school, or 4-year institution.
We look at the services we have to provide and it’s usually traditional types of recreation such as soccer, football, basketball, rugby and swimming. But, lots of kids don’t want to be athletes. They’re looking for other kinds of programs that allow them to acquire self-esteem and move forward. And, parents want an adult in the kids’ activities.
4-H is a very viable program in urban as well as rural areas. In our rural areas it’s traditional 4-H, such as animal husbandry, etc., and related competitions. But, we’re also seeing a transformation into more youth activities. We’re seeing the same thing in urban area activities.
It’s great to have young people learn how to garden, but what I’m seeing in 4-H are more things like work in schools where kids go through demanding courses such as rope courses, bicycle trips, camping trips or survival skills, etc. We like these kinds of programs because they deal with the whole person. Also, we think this responds very well to the criteria of parents, that their children be involved in programs that make them complete—that build both the inner person in terms of values and stimulate the intellect, while at the same time providing real challenges so you can continually build their self-esteem.
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| Along those lines, in the partnership that King County has with WSU, where do you see some of the needs and opportunities not only with some of the youth issues, but with other issues?
One of the needed programs we really want to keep is the Master Gardener program. It is incredibly efficient and the returns on the dollar are extraordinary. We have a lot of people very wedded to this program. But, let me tell you about some challenges we have.
In King County, 94% of all growth is directed to our urban areas, 6% into our rural areas. We’ve been able to accomplish that in a 5-year period. So, we’re very successful in managing growth. We have large agricultural areas that are constantly existing “on the brink.” Can we make agricultural production viable in large metropolitan areas? We’ve embarked on our own program called “Puget Sound Fresh” in which we market produce. We’ve just signed some agreements with large retail stores, and in addition, we’ve expanded the number of farmers’ markets. We have people who grow and sell their produce—flowers, cheese, or milk—and make those available at the farmers’ markets.
Cooperative Extension is absolutely critical. It’s taking us through a difficult period. We have endangered species; we have to look at the ability to maintain viable agriculture; have well-designed farm management plans, and figure out how to recover salmon. I think Cooperative Extension needs to continue to provide expertise in these areas of farming, recovering fish, and marketing our products.
We place incredible emphasis on young people, but we are also a community that is aging, which is occurring nationally. We can help maintain the health and viability of senior citizens, and improve it if we break down the isolation that often surrounds senior citizens by having them participate. Whether that is in gardening, animal husbandry, camping, exercise programs, nutritional programs, etc., all of those will be critically important. Cooperative Extension is the likely place to get relevant information and services. So this is a fertile time for Cooperative Extension.
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| As you look forward to your long-term commitment to public service, and beyond this position, where would you like to be, where would you like to see yourself?
Retired. I believe my wife has decided after retirement we will lend our skills and our lives to service organizations for several years before we follow the sun. But, the very things Cooperative Extension and 4-H do are what we would dedicate our lives to.
We will go to an area that is probably pretty rural. We will work with people on irrigation, farming, community organizing, taking care of senior citizens, nutrition—a variety of things. We’ll take a lot of what 4-H and Cooperative Extension do and try to teach other people how to do that in their own communities.
Cooperative Extension and 4-H should not be looked at as programs; they should be looked at as a way that people are empowered. We should look to 4-H and Cooperative Extension to enable youth and adults to improve their quality of life by bringing a program that is offered by the university traditionally and taking all that expertise and all that knowledge and that research and applying it…allowing people to take what they have learned and really fashion new lives for themselves and improve their quality of life.
The 4-H program treats a young person as whole individual, a composite. All of us are like this. We need reading and writing skills, we need to be motivated, we need confidence, we need success, and we need to feel part of a team. 4-H provides this in all the programs it offers.
When you get to be an adult, you look back and say, was that enough? This is where Cooperative Extension comes in. Whether I am a hobby farmer in my back yard, or a person who has decided to farm in a metropolitan area or in large areas with far more acreage, I’m going to rely on Cooperative Extension. When I look for nutritional needs for senior citizens, Cooperative Extension has incredible amounts of information. When I’m looking at how to match and marry my property with the responsibilities I have as a trustee of the environment to recover species and protect them, it’s Cooperative Extension that has bountiful materials and workshops to provide so that I can be educated and be a far better steward of land and property than I am today.
When I look at Integrated Pesticide Management, or organic farming and gardening, where am I going to look? I look to Cooperative Extension because it already provides that. When I want to know how and what I can recycle, what should I recycle, what is the best fertilizer to use, how should I use it, when should I use it, and when should I apply it, again, Washington State Cooperative Extension provides the answers.
Washington State Cooperative Extension provides an incredible array of tools for me to use to improve my life, my neighborhood’s life, my family’s life, and my community’s life as a whole. That is why it is so vitally important.
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