across CES (See Appendix A). We defined a C/EW program, which is the unit of analysis for this research, based on text from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture NIFA web site (NIFA, n.d.) with the following four characteristics: 1. A current evidence-based science effort for practical application. 2. Open and accessible to the public and connects people to information and assistance. 3. Sustained initiative to educate using multiple modes of delivery. 4. Focuses specifically on climate and/or extreme weather as the primary learning outcome. Exclusion criteria: A program that focused on drought or flood issues that does not mention C/EW would not be included in the final results. Likewise, if an Extension professional produced only one webinar or one factsheet or met internally with colleagues and the materials were not accessible to the public, we determined those to not meet our criteria and did not include the programs in our final inventory.
Extreme weather, such as prolonged drought, has contributed to increasing the frequency and severity of forest fires. Photo by Michael Chacon on Unsplash.
Quantitative Program Inventory The 33 fields in our database included items such as: Name of Program, University, Spatial Scale of Program, Program Description and Goals, web link, Key Personnel, Partners and Funding Agencies, Evaluative Data, Keywords/Tags (which are specific descriptors or keywords associated with program), Program Format Criteria (which included for example whether it was an active program, such as workshops/trainings or a passive program, such as a website), and the Type of Information Offered (i.e. fact sheets, bulletin, listserv). We established a preliminary database using an internet search and search terms that included the name of the Extension-related university (1862, 1890, 1994 and Sea Grants were all included) and the words ‘climate’ and / or ‘extreme weather.’
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