Water Striders (Gerris remigis) can show up in the strangest places.  These striders found a 2 foot by 3 foot puddle near a water spring at the side of a road here at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center.  Also called Pond Skaters, these insects are true bugs in the phylogenetic order Hemiptera.  They are common on quiet stream and pond waters from sea level to 8500' elevation.  The tarsi (last leg segments) have fine hairs that are hard to wet, supported by surface film, thus  allowing the insects to "surface-stride" on top of the water.  They are highly predaceous, feeding on a variety of aquatic insects.  In response to adverse conditions, some adults can fly to new habitats.

For twenty-one years the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center has maintained a Cabernet Sauvignon research vineyard.  Although small in size (2.0 acres), the design included 6 replicated blocks of four treatments each, with each treatment irrigated and metered independently.  Originally, the elaborate irrigation system and planted vines were to carry out a research project looking at the modification of wine characteristics through irrigation management.  Work by R.J. Smith, UCCE Sonoma County Viticulturalist, and T.L. Prichard, Water Management Specialist, Dept. of LAWR at UC Davis, showed that 60% of full potential water use was a "safe" management option.  Malate and titratable acidity, yield, berry weight, berries per vine, cluster numbers, and soil profile moisture content were all included in the data that was analyzed.   Subsequently the vineyard provided a research platform for other projects such as: 1) Impact of grape vine stress on root and scion health - interaction of vines, Phylloxera, Tetranychus and Fusarium, 2) Effects of 1-MCP (1-methyl cyclopropene affects the ripening process) on wine grape development, and the initial stages of 3) A comparison of organic, biodynamic, and conventional farming methods.  The vineyard has fulfilled its duty, and is now in the process of being removed. Photo by Steven Poor.

California Semaphore Grass (Pleuropogon californicus) is an endemic grass species to California.  There are two varieties: 1) P.c. var. californicus, and 2) P.c. var. davyi, with the latteer being the more restricted where it is only known from vernal pools, sloughs, and marshy grasslands in Mendocino and Lake counties.   Plants were collected at the UC-HREC by Al Murphy in 1952, but apparently the population disappeared from the Center during the subsequent decades.

In the fall of 2009 seed from another population near Hopland was collected and planted at two locations at HREC, where it still persists, but in limited numbers.   HREC would be an ideal site location to expand the population in the Hopland area, but it would take some funding, time, and effort to do so.

Italian Thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus) is a Mediterranean annual weed and is an invasive plant throughout California since the introduction in the 1930s. In 1968 the Thistle-head Weevil (Rhinocyllus conicus) was introduced to Canada and the United States as a biological control agent for musk or nodding thistle.  The weevil also has a liking for Italian thistle, and the weevil was purposely relocated in many problem areas through Northern California by UCCE and USDA County Agricultural commissioner agents throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.  The weevil has persisted at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center where the species follows through with its annual cycle of adults mating and laying eggs onto Italian thistle flower clusters where the larva burrow into the forming seed heads and devour the immature seeds.  The unfortunate part of this story is that the weevil also attacks many of the native thistles belonging to the Carduus, Cirsium and Silybum groups.