UGA Extension Office

Our Impact

AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

UGA Cooperative Extension’s primary focus is to provide information and technical expertise to homeowners and agricultural producers. Through office and farm visits, Habersham County Extension provides comprehensive soil, water, feed and forage analyses, as well as insect and disease diagnoses. The information gathered is used to make unbiased, research-based recommendations to save producers and homeowners time and money. 

Extension continued its work in the areas of watershed assessment and restoration. Local farms implemented best management practices including exclusion fencing, heavy-use watering areas and heavy-use feeding areas totaling $285,000 in impact in 2019-2021 and now $564,000 in 2022-2024.   In spring 2023, we are planning to host a Master Gardener Certification Course to enhance our volunteer group, Headwaters Master Gardeners. Each year the group contributes volunteer programming and service hours in our local community.  

FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES

In 2023 we are excited to welcome Susie Burton Medina as our Family & Consumer Science Agent in Habersham County.  We have had great success working with Susie through the teaching kitchen and food hub, where she has implemented food safety, food preservation, and diabetes courses for our community.  She began 2023 with the  Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.  This program assists residents with their taxes and often later develops into personal finance and budget counseling.  We look forward to seeing more programs in 2023 as Susie settles into her new role in Habersham.

4-H YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

The true strength of the Habersham County 4-H program is its diversity of programming. This past year we were excited to see Allison Highsmith excel as a member of Georgia  4-H Clovers & Company. We developed a new Cloverbud program with 12 members.  Lilly Kate Farrar was a Leadership in Action recipient.  Emily Gattis achieved Master 4-H Status in Livestock with her Grand Champion Simmental at the Georgia National Livestock Show.  Our Junior Poultry Judging Team placed 3rd place at District competition, our Senior Forestry Judging Team place  1st at District and 3rd at State, with the Junior Forestry Team placing 2nd at District.  George Wilder Boggs was the top competitor at District Forestry Judging.  Our Cotton Boll & Consumer Judging Senior Team placed 2nd at District Contest with Shelby Blankenship taking home High Individual honots.  We placed 1st at the District Food Challenge Competition and 4th at the state competition.  Our SAFE archery and BB Teams welcomed 6 new coaches to their ranks.  We are looking forward to seeing those programs expand in 2023.

Download Our Annual Report (pdf)