Interns and Outreach - Summer 2008

Wyoming’s small acreage owners will benefit from the outreach efforts of four Small Acreage Issue Team (SAIT) summer interns.

Emily Eschbacher is from Missouri and Amanda Preddice headed west from New York. Both are under the auspices of the Historic Trails Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Program in Casper.

Natalie Macsalka, formerly from Colorado but now living in Laramie, and Andy Kaiser, a Wyomingite from Worland, are working as SAIT interns with the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service in Laramie.

Both teams provide a variety of outreach activities. Duties include holding workshops to increase knowledge of natural resource issues and responsibilities of living on small acreages. In addition, they provide awareness of conservation practices and services available from a variety of agencies. A small acreage landowner reference manual and articles for the popular Barnyards and Backyards magazine are also in the works.

The Casper interns, Emily and Amanda, recently held the first of three workshops planned for this summer. Seventy-seven landowners attended a Mountain Pine Beetle hands-on workshop to recognize and treat the beetle. The Casper Mountain Forest Stewardship Association, Natrona County Bridge and Parks Department, Natrona County Conservation District, Wyoming State Forestry, Cooperative Extension Service, and Natrona County Weed and Pest partnered with the Historic Trails RC&D on the workshop.

Grants from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 319 funds, through the Department of Environmental Quality, fund the workshops and interns.

The Small Acreage Issue Team (SAIT) is a cooperative effort of the University of Wyoming—Cooperative Extension Service, Wyoming conservation districts, Resource Conservation and Development councils, NRCS, Wyoming State Forestry, and many other agencies. SAIT organizes and conducts workshops for small acreage landowners around Wyoming. The team also publishes the Barnyards and Backyards quarterly magazine.