WVU Extension Service Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Primary Election Candidate Filing And Health-Focused New Year’s Resolutions, This West Virginia

On this West Virginia Morning, candidates for local, state and federal offices can file for the May 14 Primary Election until midnight on Saturday, Jan. 27, and we talk with registered dietician and WVU Extension specialist Gina Wood about more sustainable changes to have a larger impact on your health in the long-term.

On this West Virginia Morning, we’ve heard political campaign rhetoric for a while now, but as of Monday, West Virginia’s official candidate filing period is now underway. Candidates for local, state and federal offices can file for the May 14 Primary Election until midnight on Saturday, Jan. 27. As Randy Yohe discovered, the decision to run for political office comes with rules, responsibilities – and reflection.

Also, in this show, many people plan to start a diet as their New Year’s resolution, but studies have shown that restrictive diets have high rates of failure. Chris Schulz spoke with registered dietician and WVU Extension specialist Gina Wood about more sustainable changes to have a larger impact on your health in the long-term.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas produced this show.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

WVU Extension To Hold College Prep Weekend For High Schoolers

High school juniors and seniors interested in attending West Virginia University will have a unique opportunity to prepare this spring.

West Virginia University Extension is hosting a free, family-friendly college preparation event at WVU Jackson’s Mill March 1-3. Called “Let’s Go Weekend,” students will participate in guided workshops to prepare for and complete the FAFSA, Promise Scholarship application and other scholarship opportunities. Attendees also will get the opportunity to apply to WVU and have their application fee waived.

Rachel Meininger, the director of recruitment for WVU Extension, said the event aims to address a need for West Virginia students interested in attending WVU and other colleges.

“One of the things that we had seen in talking with our youth is that there is a lack of knowledge for some of our rising juniors and seniors who are getting ready for that post-secondary transition and sort of wanting to help fill in some of those learning gaps,” she said.

Beyond financial topics, Meininger said other workshops will focus on aspects of college life “like how to cook in your dorm, and how to make friends and some of that social student life aspect.” She said the weekend will be helpful for many students, especially first generation students who have not had a parent or a family member go through the application and college process before.

“It’s really just the best way to come together and get a sense of community, meet some families and students who are looking at that same transitions and struggles that you’re facing and come together and learn in person in small groups,” Meininger said.

There are 50 spots for the “Let’s Go Weekend.” Registration is now open and will close on Feb. 14.

WVU Extension offers more college resources, including online FAFSA resources and cost estimations.

“This is just one of the offers that we have,” Meininger said. “A lot of our county 4-H agents also are working with their local school districts and their 4-H to help kids gain these types of soft skills to prepare them for college prep, job and career readiness entry.”

WVU Extension Offering Free Seeds, Statewide Competition

West Virginia University Extension is again sending free seeds to West Virginians who fill out a short online survey, but the program has a new focus in 2024.

The “Grow This: West Virginia Garden Challenge” is a project of the WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program that aims to teach West Virginians how to grow their own food.

Zack Harold, the program’s multimedia specialist, said in 2023 the program provided seeds to more than 60,000 state residents. This year, the program is launching the “Grow This Throwdown,” a statewide competition that aims to get West Virginians to move more and build community around food.

“There was already a community around ‘Grow This,’ it was just an online community,” Harold said. “It’s trying to take that community and turn it into a real world thing so that people know their neighbors and can be part of a real-world initiative and help people.”

The “Throwdown” will be a county competition with challenges set throughout the year, ranging from sharing vegetables with your neighbor, or setting up a seed exchange, to more involved challenges like creating a seed or tool library.

“But if you complete those challenges, you earn points,” Harold said. “At the end of the season, we’ll compile all those points, and the counties with the most points will win grant money for community improvement projects.”

The only two requirements to qualify for “Grow This” are to live in West Virginia and to fill out the program survey. Harold said replies to prior years’ surveys, particularly responses around wanting more access to affordable produce, inspired this year’s Throwdown and its community centered challenges.

“We wanted to find a way to take the energy surrounding this and the passion that people have for this and use that to try to tackle the food insecurity issue in some small way,” he said. “It’s not going to solve food insecurity in West Virginia, but it’ll help in some small way. And it might open people’s eyes to the needs around them that they might not have seen before.”

This year’s “Grow This” crops of carrots, peppers and kale will be familiar to participants from last year. Harold said although the seeds will be new varieties of the same vegetables, participants should be more familiar with their requirements now.

“The idea was that people kind of had a practice round last year, they learned about the unique challenges that are involved in growing those particular vegetables, so they can do it better this year and have a more successful garden in addition to competing in these challenges,” Harold said.

Harold says signups fill up fast, but even those who don’t get the free seeds from the survey can participate in Throwdown challenges.

Editor’s note: Zack Harold also reports for the Inside Appalachia Folkways Project.

Keeping Kids Active During Winter Break Has Benefits

Everyone, even kids, needs a break and the winter holidays provide the perfect respite in the academic year. But experts say just a little bit of activity during the downtime can go a long way to starting the new year off right.

The holidays are an important time to rest and relax. Everyone, even kids, needs a break and the winter holidays provide the perfect respite in the academic year. But experts say just a little bit of activity during the downtime can go a long way to starting the new year off right.

Kerry Gabbert, assistant professor and public health evaluation and training specialist for West Virginia University Extension’s Family Nutrition Program SNAP-Ed Program, said daily activity not only has physical benefits for kids, but mental and emotional benefits as well.

“Kids who meet the daily requirements for physical activity have improved memory and concentration, they have a better sleep pattern,” Gabbert said. “And they also experience benefits to their mental and emotional health, like reduced anxiety and depression.”

The daily recommendation for kids aged six to 17 is 60 minutes of physical activity. Whereas the advice used to be that activity should be done in increments of at least 10 minutes, Gabbert said research now shows being active for just two or three minutes at a time can contribute to the total 60 minutes.

“It’s a great way for families to spend time together doing something that can be really fun, it doesn’t have to be overly structured play,” she said. “The best ways for families to be active can be something as simple as taking a walk together after dinner or putting some music on and dancing.”

Families can use physical activity to strengthen their bond and enjoy their time together during the winter break. Gabbert said another way of looking at integrating active time is to break up those lazy winter days, and try to reduce the amount of time kids are sedentary.

“If they’re sitting and playing a video game, or having some other type of screen time, instead of allowing kids to sit and not move around for hours at a time, set a timer for an hour and make sure they get up, move around,” she said. “Maybe walk up and down the stairs, or do a few jumping jacks or even just walk a lap around the house, any kind of movement to break up the sedentary time also helps to get your blood flowing, clear your mind out, and it helps reduce some of the negative impacts that you can get from not being active.”

Students of all ages can also benefit from staying mentally active during the winter break.

Jennifer Robertson-Honecker, WVU associate professor and the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) specialist for WVU Extension, was also formerly a high school teacher and said while the academic impact of the winter holiday break isn’t as severe as the “summer slide,” students can still lag come January.

“When they come back after the break, if they’ve done nothing with their brains or with their bodies, there’s often this type of lethargy that’s hard to get them going again,” Robertson-Honecker said.

She said STEM can be made fun, engaging and age-appropriate through crafts and even everyday activities like baking or cooking.

“Think about what you’re already doing with your family and how you could turn it into a learning moment,” Robertson-Honecker said. “A lot of families love to make those salt dough ornaments. There’s a lot of chemistry in that that you can talk about, of how it’s forming.”

She encouraged families to lean into holiday activities, and their messier side. The more fun kids have with an activity, the more likely they are to remember and learn from it.

“It’s really important to do it together, as a family,” Robertson-Honecker said. “Research shows that, when you bring learning like that into the home, it’s just so much more meaningful for kids. And it really sticks with them, and demonstrates lifelong learning, that learning can be fun.”

There are many resources online for at-home learning activities, including on the WVU Extension website. But Robertson-Honecker says there shouldn’t be an objective to get something perfect at the end of holiday activities.

“That low stakes learning really shows that it can be fun and exciting, and something you can do together,” she said. “You can turn any activity into a fun thing to do with your kids.”

WVU Extension Tips For Keeping Your Christmas Tree Healthy And Safe

Reporter Chris Schulz spoke with Dave McGill, a WVU Extension forest resources specialist, about how best to give trees at home the same level of care as the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree.

The selection of this year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree from the Monongahela National Forest is drawing attention to the classic holiday decoration.

Reporter Chris Schulz spoke with Dave McGill, a WVU Extension forest resources specialist, about how best to give trees at home the same level of care as the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: What is the first thing that they should do as they’re bringing that tree into the house to ensure that it is healthy for the longest amount of time?

McGill: Whether they purchase a tree out of a big box store, off of a lot, or go out to the Christmas tree choose-and-cut farm, once they get it home, the most important thing is to get that in water. Before you get it in water, you want to make sure you take another new slice off that trunk, the base of the trunk to kind of open the little tubes that conduct the water up the stem of the tree. Make sure those are open and flowing and then get it in the water as soon as you make that cut.

Schulz: A lot of families have had the tree stand that they’re using this year for many, many years. What are some things to look out for as far as ensuring that you’re putting that tree into a stable position?

McGill: That is something that you take some time with. I’ve had my stand for many years, it’s a cast iron LL Bean and, not promoting any kind of brand, but it’s it’s one of these you crank the screws into and it really really grabs on and it’s a long lasting one I’ve had it for a couple of decades now. Every stand is different, but it is something that you will know if it is stable. Usually once you get it fixed kind of straight up right and you kind of either screw it in or fix it in one way or another, you kind of shake it a little bit you can feel whether it’s loose or not.

There’s also opportunities out in some Christmas tree farms to get a hole drilled in from below the tree as it stands straight and a particular type of stand that there’s a little peg that you stand it up on and I know a number of the choose and cut farms have those available.

Schulz: What are the water needs of a tree?

McGill: Once you bring the tree in and water it, maybe even for the first four to five days, you’ll probably want to water it maybe even twice a day. You want to check closely because it really draws up water initially. While we say you have to water it once a day, you want to pay close attention right when you get that into the stand.

I’ll water it in the morning and check in the afternoon, and usually it’s ready for some more water. So for about four or five days, you want to water it, at least pay closer attention to it in that early part of the season.

Schulz: If you under water or don’t water a tree, you run the risk of the needles falling off of it becoming dry and perhaps a little unappealing to the eye. But are there any other risks that you run with having a dry tree in the home?

McGill: Of course, if you have a dry tree in the house, and there’s an ignition source, it can catch on fire. But that’s why we, as part of our safety awareness, we make sure we put it in a place that’s away from any kind of heating, or even air conditioning that can dry out a tree. Any kind of thing that blows over the surface of the needles will tend to dry it out.

When you go out to a tree farm, for example, or even at the lot, one of the things you kind of want to look for is the freshness of the tree. There’s even some preparatory observations you can make as you’re out on the farm. Generally, the trees that are standing, growing are the healthiest, the freshest, the most vigorous. Then, as you get farther and farther from the time it has been cut, it tends to become drier, obviously. When you’re choosing, especially from a lot or a big box store, you want to check the needles. You want to take the end of a little branch in your hand and kind of tug on it a little bit, as if you were trying to pull the needles off. If you use enough force, you can pull needles off, but you just kind of want to gently tug and see if they’re dry.

Now, when you’re at the farm, sometimes it’s very natural to have dead needles in a tree. It’s just part of how a tree grows. We think evergreens, the needles are gonna stay there forever, but they don’t. Typically, especially like the spruce and the firs will retain their needles for two to three years. Then the older ones will die off and the newer ones will have kind of bushed out the tree more. It’s real obvious in white pine. Every year, the white pines turn yellow, and everyone thinks “Oh my gosh, they’re sickly and there’s something’s wrong, we have to fertilize them.” But that’s just the two-year-old needles upsizing, they’re falling off the tree, and it can create quite a mess below the tree, but it’s actually a beautiful golden color as some of these needles really carpet the ground beneath these white pines.

Schulz: How long can someone reasonably expect a tree to survive in their home?

McGill: Well, the reality is, as long as you want to keep it there, if there’s no ignition source, it will continue to dry out. It’s not living, really, any it’s not going to be growing and the needles are not gonna be getting any healthier. As long as it looks nice and you’re enjoying it you could leave it in your house, but just know that when you’re ready to take it out, you’re probably going to get some debris falling off of it. I know I do every year.

Schulz: What about the safety of decorations? I know we’ve come a long way since the original tradition of hanging lit candles on the ends of tree limbs. But what should people look out for in their lights, for example, to make sure that that doesn’t become an ignition source?

McGill: Properly plugged in plugs, make sure they’re secure. Most lights these days are not big heat generating lights. They just don’t get real hot. If your lights get real hot you want to look for some that don’t get hot and just replace those. But for the most part they are fairly low heat lights and are not generally a problem. I have not looked it up honestly, what most ignition sources are with Christmas tree fires, but lights probably are an ignition source, but probably a rare event.

Schulz: I’m sure that’s changed in even the last two generations, because you used to hear a lot more about tree fires.

McGill: Oh my gosh, yeah. Well, when I was a kid, the lights we put on those things, you would go up and “Oh, man, that’s really hot.” So, I’m sure that we’ve done better and better with our Christmas tree fire statistics.

Schulz: I don’t know if this is happening in West Virginia, but in other locations, people can buy trees with the root ball still attached. Do you have any experience with that in the home?

McGill: I don’t have any experience with that. Although I have to admit that this year, I’m going to right after we talk here in fact, I’m going to get a little northern white cedar or Arborvitae. It’s living in a pot, you can plant it out afterwards. It’s small scale for my house, and so it’s a little kind of a festive decoration. It’s not as big as some of the grown trees that take lots of our family ornaments. Which is why you want to get the nice trees up if you have a collection of ornaments, which it’s always nice to get your ornaments on and think of the people that you bought them with or for or whatever.

Schulz: What is your suggestion that people do with their trees?

McGill: What I usually do is leave it out to be taken to the landfill. That’s the easy way. These guys who collect our landfill waste are great, because they take a lot of grief from us.

But you can also leave it in the backyards. It’s one thing I’ve done in the past because we’ve had bird feeders that the birds come in and kind of allow some protective habitat for them to land and check things out, “Is it safe to go to the birdfeeder yet or not?” And there’s a little bit of cover for them in the backyard.

Schulz: Is there anything else about bringing a tree into your home that I haven’t given you an opportunity to discuss with us today?

McGill: Just in terms of selecting the tree there’s all sorts of different types and they all have different kinds of leaf retention expectations. Some trees are expected to drop their needles quicker than others. Generally the firs are ones that really hang on like Canaan fir, Frasier fir you’ve heard those names, those hang on to their needles longer. The spruces, they kind of dry out a little bit. They’re the prickly ones that if you roll a little needle in your finger, you can feel that it has four sides on it. The pines are kind of intermediate. So the most common ones, I think, are the firs and the spruces for Christmas trees around here.

But I encourage people to go out and to go to a farm. It’s a great experience, it’s healthy, it’s restorative. I had a colleague at WVU recently do a research study on shopping for trees: artificial trees, big box stores and trees out on forest on Christmas tree farms. And found that it’s very, very much more restorative in many ways to be out on the farm and smelling the fresh air and feeling you can cut your own tree down and have that whole experience. So I encourage people to try and go out and find their local live Christmas tree, choose and cut farm and have a great time, a great holiday season.

World Record Attempt Brings Attention To Home Gardening, Food Access

History could be made Friday night at a baseball game in Morgantown — but it won’t have anything to do with the ball game.

The West Virginia University Extension Family Nutrition Program will attempt to break the record for the “world’s largest gardening lesson” when the West Virginia Black Bears play the Mahoning Valley Scrappers Friday night.

Zack Harold, the multimedia specialist with the WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program, said the attempt is a way to increase awareness of the Grow This: West Virginia Garden Challenge program that sends free seats to West Virginians.

“We thought, ‘What better way to get people excited and try to make history with home gardening?’” he said. “As much as it is about getting outside and enjoying the process of gardening, it’s also a food access issue for us.”

Harold said the main objective at the Family Nutrition Program is to teach West Virginia families how to feed their families better and healthier. One of the best ways to do that is to feed your family fresh fruits and vegetables.

“As we all know, that’s gonna be really hard to come across in West Virginia. We have a lot of areas of the state that are food deserts,” he said. “But if you learn to grow that food, it becomes not an issue of getting in the car and driving an hour to the nearest grocery store, it becomes just a matter of walking out to your backyard and picking it off the vine.”

The focus of the gardening lesson will be using recycled materials in the garden, which Harold said is meant to dispel the misconception that gardening requires a lot of upfront investment and cost.

“But really, if you got seeds, and you got some soil and water, you can use containers around your house to start seeds and grow them in,” he said. “You just got to get a little bit creative and West Virginians are great at that kind of creativity.”

The lesson will be taught by Sherry Weaver, winner of the recent Grow This Has Talent contest, and will aim to beat the current record, set in Turkmenistan in October 2022, where 569 people learned how to plant grape vines.
Editor’s note: Zack Harold also works as a Folkways reporter for the Inside Appalachia Folkways Project.