● “... nationally there's some Extension leadership that really sees the value of Extension talking about extreme events and climate and climate change and weather. But, based on [my] experience, I don't know that that is all Extension leadership nationally .” (R10) ● “ Our Extension team tells us that they cannot organize an event solely around climate change , not gonna fly, but they do incorporate soil health or how to manage extreme rainfall events or drought into the programming that they’re doing.” (R11) ● “There was a situation where my supervisor in Extension was unhappy that I was working on climate change work and submitted a letter to me and asked me to stop doing all work on climate change ...I wasn't sure if I was going to jeopardize my position by continuing to work on that project ...I didn't feel like I could continue working.” (R12) ● “ I just realized how biased our Extension system is. It's out of control. I mean, we worked to some extent with (ORG) and with (ORG), but it was just a real eye opener in terms of the disconnect between research, Extension, and practice …of what researchers are getting funded for in terms of ‘sexy’ science.” (R13) ● “I don't think our Dean really made it a priority …I or we would get emails [from our Dean] saying, ‘Be very careful how you talk, how you frame climate change with farmers.’ And I would be thinking, that's what I've been studying and that's what I do. I very carefully frame it. So, I don't think it was [the Dean’s] priority and it definitely isn't the Director of Extension’s right now. I don't think our [Director of Extension] really thinks it's a priority or a burning crisis , which has been frustrating.” (R11) ● “I've gotten invited to come out into some of the hardest places to talk about this and have big, big discussions about it. Senator (NAME) was at one of the river watershed meetings and it was all about climate change, because our local Extension Directors were like ‘ we can't not talk about this anymore. We've got to have this discussion.’ ” (R04) Sense of Urgency to Invest & Act on C/EW Issues
Collectively, interview respondents felt that there is a widespread lack of urgency from within the Cooperative Extension Service to act on climate change and extreme weather issues in a unified and strategic way. Compounding this institutional challenge, they noted a commensurate lack of financial investment from Extension leadership for both personnel/salaried full-time employees (FTEs) dedicated to
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