North Dakotans enjoy many positive aspects of living and working in the state, but opportunities may exist to make the state even better. To hear those ideas, the North Dakota State University Extension Service invited more than 300 North Dakotans to share their issues and challenges at community forums this fall.

“A cross section of people from 11 regions across the state were asked to share their concerns about two major areas: agriculture, energy, natural resources and the economy, and children, families and communities,” said Chris Boerboom, NDSU Extension Service director. “This information will help shape NDSU Extension’s strategic planning efforts during the next three to five years and help us create the Extension programs that will most strongly align with the needs and priorities of North Dakota residents.”

Priority issues of concern related to agriculture, energy, natural resources and the economy included:

• Ag economy
• Public disconnect with agriculture
• Energy development
• Farm and business transition
• Labor force
• Natural resources protection
• Regulations
• Rural communities

Priorities issues related to children, families and communities included:

• Health and wellness
• Civic engagement
• Successful families
• Infrastructure
• Crime and safety
• Education

“Extension’s role is education, so on some of these topics, Extension will provide education and facilitation,” Boerboom said. “Extension will not be able to directly address some of the other issues, but we want to share these needs with others who are in a better position to address them.

“Extension already has many strong programs in agriculture, families and nutrition, 4-H and communities, but this input highlights specific areas where more could be done,” he added. “We can put more attention to some programs while other areas are currently limited by our capacity. This important input will help us continue to carry out our role of extending knowledge and changing lives by focusing on the critical areas of economic prosperity, community engagement and healthy citizens.”

For details on the community input and potential Extension responses, see http://bit.ly/ExtForums.

The community forums were held in Langdon, St. Michael, Hillsboro, Lisbon, Jamestown, Washburn, Berthold, Bowman, Watford City, Fort Yates and Linton.

NDSU Agriculture Communication - Nov. 24, 2015