Oneida County Monthly Update

June 2018

Page 1

Did you catch the WPR Central Time story on February 7, 2018, “UW Study Looks at What Draws Younger Adults to Smaller Communities”?

Randy Stoecker, professor of Community & Environmental Sociology and specialist at the Center for Community Economic Development, and Allyson Watson, UW-Extension community development educator in Outagamie and Winnebago Counties, led a study that found Millennials want tight-knit communities near cities. The full report is available at https://apl.wisc.edu/shared/youngadults.

They learned:

Only about 15% of Wisconsin communities are gaining and maintaining young adults.

Communities in urban areas such as Milwaukee county also loose young people.

Communities that gain and maintain young adults are much more likely to be near cities and freeways.

There are five important qualities of communities that are important for attracting young adults:

1. Perceived quality of schools.

2. Housing that young adults at different life stages define as affordable.

3. Outdoor amenities such as parks and trails for both motorized and silent (skiing, hiking, etc.) outdoor recreation.

Oneida County UW-Extension Staff

Lynn Feldman 4-H Youth Development Educator Email: lynn.feldman@ces.uwex.edu

Myles Alexander Community, Natural

Resources and Economic Development Educator

Email: myles.alexander@ces.uwex.edu

Sara Richie Family Living Educator

Email: sara.richie@ces.uwex.edu

Karly Johnson FoodWIse Coordinator

Email: karly.johnson@ces.uwes.edu

Terri Lindner FoodWIse Nutrition Program

Email: terri.lindner@ces.uwex.edu

Merry Lehner Support Staff

Email: merry.lehner@ces.uwex.edu

Bonnie Tillmann Support Staff

Email: bonnie.tillmann@ces.uwex.edu

Office 3375 Airport Road #10 Rhinelander, WI 54501

Phone: 715-365-2750

Website: http://oneida.uwex.edu

Facebook: www.facebook.com/OneidaCountyUWEX Continued on Page 2...

Community & Economic Development

By Myles Alexander Community, Natural Resources & Eco-nomic Development Educator UW-Extension Oneida County

Attracting Young Adults

UW-EXTENSION ONEIDA COUNTY WEBSITE: HTTP: //ONEIDA.UWEX.EDU

Page 2

4. A small town sense of community and civic engagement.

5. Proximity to cities that offer employment, entertainment, and shopping.

Young adults look for public spaces where they can get out of the house and engage with their communities. For example, Watson said the Fox River Trail in Brown County was plowed in last winter. Young adults reported it was important that they could now access the trail year-round.

These communities are attractive to young families more than young singles. Trying to attract young singles to smaller communities may backfire, Stoecker says. “If singles don’t find places to mingle, they may leave and say bad things about you.”

Young adults want the professional and recreational benefits of living near cities. Yet, many young people with families also want to be part of a smaller community. Stoecker said they look for good schools. Good is more than high test scores. Teachers in good schools know every parent and every child. Good schools double as inviting, community spaces where community members are welcome for various activities.

Other indoor community spaces such as microbreweries and coffee shops are necessary. Yet, more than almost anything, young adults are looking for good places to eat.

Watson said more targeted branding could help attract young people to Wisconsin. “Lose the

Master Gardener Volunteers

national identity that we are exclusively beer and football. Highlight, ‘Yes, we have great beer and great football but look at all these other things we have as well.’”

Stoecker suggests to interview one to two dozen young people in the community. “Learn what keeps them, what attracts them. It’s not expensive or super time consuming. Then start thinking about how you might leverage that knowledge.”

What are the lessons for Oneida County?

Continue to improve year-round enjoyment of the Northwoods for human and motor powered users.

Invest in school buildings, teachers, staff and programs.

Innovate ways to provide and keep afforda-ble a variety of housing choices.

Build on our historic downtowns. Restore second floor residences. Renovate historic structures for contemporary uses. The Three Lakes Center for the Arts is an example. Zon-ing ordinances may need to be amended to maintain pedestrian friendly downtowns and neighborhoods rather than create suburban sprawl.

Collaborate, cooperate and break out of the box.

UW-EXTENSION ONEIDA COUNTY WEBSITE: HTTP: //ONEIDA.UWEX.EDU

Page 3

Ecotrek

4-H YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

By Lynn Feldman 4-H Youth Development Educator UW-Extension Oneida County

Since the early 1990’s the Oneida County UW-Extension Youth Development Educator has collaborated with Kemp Natural Resource Station, located between Lake Tomahawk and Woodruff, to put on the Ecotrek event. Ecotrek is an all-day outdoor experience, during the month of May, for area 7th grade students. Set up along Kemp’s nature trail are teaching stations that cover a variety of natural resource subject areas including furbearers, fish, aquatic plants, bats, forestry, recycling, and more. Students travel from station to station experiencing hands-on 20-30 minute lessons at each. There is no cost for schools to attend other than transportation to Kemp Station. At the end of the day, an evaluation is completed regarding knowledge gained as well as how each student can apply what they learned.

Depending on the year, the people who teach the various station sessions vary. In odd years, students from UW-Madison’s Wildlife Ecology course lead the sessions as part of their outreach teaching education. In even years, the UW-Extension County 4-H and Youth Development Educator seeks area professionals to do the teaching at no cost. This past May, teachers represented the Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Headwaters Invasive Species, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Oneida County Land and Water Conservation Department, UW-Extension-Wisconsin Lakes Partnership, UW-Extension-Natural Resource Education, Steigerwaldt Land Services, Trees for Tomorrow, and the UW-Limnology Center in Boulder Junction. Except for a couple of additional stations added this year, the professionals who led the sessions were ones who had taught at the event before. The value they place on outreach youth education is evident by

their quick response each time they are invited.

The value the students and their school teachers place on the event is evident by their positive evaluations and by the growth in the number of schools that now participate. This year there was an all-time high number of participants, with 184 students representing five schools. In spite of being outdoors all day in 50 degree weather where brisk winds blew off Tomahawk Lake still laden with sheets of ice in the bay areas, the students sustained their attention at each station on the trail. They demonstrated respect for the natural and social environment in which they found themselves. The outcome was a tribute to the excellence of this youth development planned event.

Ecotrek was a vision years ago of then Oneida County 4-H Youth Development Educator, Jackie Guthrie. It annually is made possible by the availability of the University Research Station, UW-Madison, and the desire of area Ecology professionals to educate youth. These are reasons why the program has endured for more than 25 years.

Kemp Natural Resource Station frequently holds public workshops. As listed on its website, Kemp is dedicated to research, instruction, and outreach concerning the management, conservation, and preservation of northern Wisconsin’s natural resources. The facility has lodging and classroom space available for individual and group natural resources related research, classes, and programs. For more information on community programming being held this summer at Kemp, visit kemp.wisc.edu.

UW-EXTENSION ONEIDA COUNTY WEBSITE: HTTP: //ONEIDA.UWEX.EDU

Food Prep Education is a Success

By Karly Johnson FoodWIse Coordinator

Page 4

FoodWIse and Tri-County Women’s Outreach Program partnered to offer a pilot for food preparation education to women from Oneida County participating in the Women’s Outreach program. FoodWIse Coordinator, Karly Johnson, had a total of seven women from their early 20’s to 60 or older participate in the class. We were able to utilize classroom and kitchen space at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Rhinelander.

To start the lesson the women learned about MyPlate food groups, proper serving sizes, and budget friendly ways to include healthy options from each food group into their daily meals. After the nutrition lesson we then ventured into the kitchen were the group was taught how to properly test the temperature of meat using a stem thermometer, how to properly store food items by discussing the danger zones (visual demonstration using yeast), and they received a demonstration of proper knife skills. The participants were able to practice all three techniques by preparing chicken fajitas themselves with my guidance. Tri-County Women’s Outreach Program was generous enough to provide enough ingredients for everyone to have a full serving of chicken fajitas for an early dinner where nutrition and food safety conversations continued.

Following the lesson, participants were asked to complete a brief survey about the pilot program. Six of the seven women completed the survey, due to one participant having to leave prior to the end of the lesson. Six out of six responded “strongly agree” when asked if they would enjoy coming to another event or class based on cooking and/or nutrition education. Some comments provided

were “I had a good experience, and learned a lot of things” and “Have more events. Great info, nice handout, and very informative.”

The purpose of our pilot lessons was to

determine if a partnership with Tri-County

Women’s Outreach would be beneficial and if

food preparation education would be well

received. After our first lesson we have

determined to continue a partnership with Tri-

County Women’s Outreach to provide a series of

nutrition and food prep lessons and continue to

search for more food preparation education

opportunities throughout Oneida County.

CHICKEN FAJITAS

INGREDIENTS

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 1/2 tablespoons oil (canola or vegetable)

1 red bell pepper (thinly sliced)

1 green bell pepper (thinly sliced)

1 medium onion (thinly sliced)

6 (8 inch) whole wheat tortillas

6 ounces low fat cheddar cheese, shredded (optional)

1 cup tomato, chopped (optional)

Cilantro, chopped (optional)

Jalapeno, sliced (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Freeze chicken 30 minutes until firm and easier to cut. Cut chicken into 1/4” strips. Place in a single layer on a plate. Wash hands, knife and cutting board. Sprinkle both sides of strips with chili and garlic powder.

2. Add oil to a 12 inch skillet. Heat to medium high. Add chicken strips. Cook about 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

3. Add bell peppers and onion. Stir and cook until vegetables are tender and chicken is no longer pink. (Heat chicken to at least 165 degrees F)

4. Scoop chicken mixture (2/3 cup each) onto tortillas. Top with your favorite toppings.

FoodWIse