The Suwannee River Partnership was created to help reduce nitrogen deposits that get into the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers, but the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) recently made one deposit that the Partnership won’t be reducing.



UF/IFAS furthered its investment into protecting the rivers by hiring Sarah Carte to fill its new educational coordinator position. Carte, who is based at UF/IFAS’ North Florida Research and Education Center-Suwannee Valley (NFREC-SV) in Live Oak, Fla., was hired to help the Partnership protect these beautiful natural resources so that future generations can enjoy them.



Over the past 20 years, nitrate levels in the Rivers has risen due to industry, fertilizer, and increased human and livestock wastes. When elevated, nitrate levels can cause health problems in humans, and have negative impacts on water resources.



Carte will be working with the Partnership, which is a coalition of 50 state, federal and regional agencies, local governments, and private industry representatives, to help achieve its goal of lowering nitrate levels in the Rivers, through education and communication.



“It’s an exciting position that encompasses a lot of things that I’ve always wanted to do and enjoy,” Carte said. “And being an agricultural communications major, I wanted to educate the public and the growers, and this is the ideal joy.”



UF/IFAS and the Partnership’s research and management practices are incentive-based and voluntarily implemented by farmers, who will help reduce nitrate deposits in the rivers by utilizing them. However, the challenge in the past has been getting that information to the growers.



“The Suwannee River Management District in particular has a lot of information they need to get out, UF/IFAS has a lot of information that they’ve generated in that basin in terms of research and BMPs (Best Management Practices) that they need to get out, but there just wasn’t an overall coordinator of delivery or the message to the variety of clientele that exists in the Basin, said Tom Obreza, chairman of the committee that hired Carte, and a UF professor of nutrient management and water quality.



“Sarah was a graduate of UF in agriculture education communications, so she has a good educational background, she also worked for a grower of a variety of agriculture commodities, where she was involved in marketing the products, so marketing is a really strong background that she has, and that’s really what we need, the marketing of the information.”



As the educational coordinator, Carte will be working with UF/IFAS agricultural researchers at NFREC-SV and the Partnership to ensure that the research being done to lower nitrate levels reaches the farmers and other people who need it.



“One of the main components in helping us achieve our mission is the educational and outreach to land-users and stake holders in the Basin that may have interest in water quality,” said Darrell Smith, the coordinator of the Partnership. “UF/IFAS is a big part of helping the Partnership achieve that particular component, as well as some other components, and Sarah is going to be instrumental in helping coordinate, from IFAS’ standpoint, all the action planning and all related to the education and outreach programs.”



Carte graduated from UF with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications. A fifth-generation farmer, Carte was born and raised in Suwannee County. She and her husband William live and operate a beef cattle and poultry farm outside of Live Oak.



For further information contact: Yasmin Wallas at 850-875-7112 or fax at (850) 875-7188 or email: ywallas@ifas.ufl.edu